David Norris (Independent)

At the beginning of his speech he referred to social partnership. It is a pity he was not here for the Order of Business today because my colleague, Senator Ross, raised an important point about the transfer of powers extra-democratically to this unelected and not entirely representative body. I agree with the Minister of State that social partnership and such discussions have laid the foundation for much of our economic and social progress, whose results I welcome.

There is, however, to use a cliché, a democratic deficit. Members on both sides of the House this morning suggested that representatives of the social partners come into the House to engage in an information and question session. This would be very useful because it would bring this type of negotiation back into the democratic process. I hope the Minister of State will support that call and assist us in responding to it.

I regret the fact that there is an amendment to the motion. What is the point of it? The motion is concerned with the protection of workers, developing registered employment agreements, devoting increased resources to the labour inspectorate, and ensuring enforcement and Revenue inspection. We all know that is right. The Minister of State could not possibly quibble with any single item in the motion, yet we get this stupid, knee-jerk reaction all the time, which is demeaning politics. It is a case of the Government side saying "White" if the Opposition says "Black". If an Opposition motion states anything, the Government amends it by deleting everything in the text and saying "We commend the Government for its wonderful work". The public is not fooled by this and it is a waste of time. If only we could get together and agree a central ground in the interests not of our parties but of the workers of this country, we would be much better off.

The Gama construction workers are mentioned in the motion. It is a shame and a reproach on every party in this House that it took Deputy Joe Higgins, the Independent Socialist Member in the other House, to unearth this scandal which had been concealed. All the matters which have been correctly mentioned by the Labour Party were found not to have been operated properly. It was only the investigative action of Deputy Joe Higgins that managed to bring this matter to the surface and rescue the situation for Gama workers. That is a great pity.

The fact that these abysmal conditions exist can be ascertained by putting a human face to them. I wish to cite some quotations that were issued from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. A chef from Romania stated, "I moved to Ireland in 2001 on a work permit. Since then I've had five or six jobs. In my last job I started on €2 an hour". I pay my cleaning lady €20 an hour. What is the minimum wage, it is €9 or €10 per hour?