Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. I thank him for introducing the Bill and for providing an outline of its contents. Following the disgraceful series of events at Irish Ferries, the Government was forced to act. I am disappointed, however, that the workers at Irish Ferries had to suffer before the Minister and his colleagues were alerted to this shady practice. Lest there be any doubt, this shady practice involved Irish Ferries receiving €4.3 million towards the cost of statutory redundancy payments to more than 400 Irish staff who were then replaced by eastern European workers on lower pay.

Under the Bill, a redundancy panel drawn from the social partners will be established which may request the Minister to refer dismissals to the Labour Court to determine whether they are genuine redundancies. Based on that opinion, the Minister may refuse to pay a redundancy rebate. That is entirely correct and it is a shame that such a system is not already in place. The Bill is a reflection of the new challenges that face a new Ireland. Where once we were struggling to keep our workers from leaving, we are now struggling to stop jobs that we have in abundance from being devalued.

My party watched the unfolding events at Irish Ferries with a growing sense of disgust and horror. The actions of the company have been an example of the worst type of Dickensian exploitation ever seen in this country. A number of points should have been borne in mind in respect of this matter. Paramount among these is the fact that Irish Ferries is an Irish company based in Ireland and, as such, should be subject to the laws of this country including legislation that provides for a minimum wage, employee protection and health and safety. It was as a result of a legal nonsense that the company was allowed to get away with industrial murder. The Bill is the result of the actions of a greedy, grubby company, intent on maximising profits that is not just seeking a cheaper labour force but that is actually seeking a criminally cheap labour force.

We have established in this country an industrial relations infrastructure that at the very least ensures that workers from new countries are not exploited and are paid a decent wage. That legislation has protected Irish workers from being replaced in their jobs by new arrivals to our shores. Irish Ferries, for no good reason whatsoever, other than that it runs ships as opposed to, for example, busses or trains, is not obliged to obey those laws. It has run roughshod over 40 years of industrial diplomacy that helped create the Celtic tiger from which everyone, including Irish Ferries, benefited.

The management of Irish Ferries should have been loyal to the social partnership process. It should also have been loyal to the people who helped the company to become profitable. I wonder if the company will be able to count on the loyalty of Irish people in the future. I also wonder if it will be able to depend on the loyalty of exporters, importers and tourists who were so badly treated and so hugely inconvenienced during this sorry drama.

The Second Stage of this debate allows me the opportunity to raise the issue of immigration and job displacement. My party, backed by our colleagues in Labour, has sought to begin a dialogue on immigration to Ireland to ensure that the seeds of resentment and racism are not sown in this country. What happened at Irish Ferries can only contribute to this.

The recent dramatic growth in the rate of immigration into Ireland is resulting in what is arguably the greatest economic and social transformation of our country since independence. My party believes that this transformation presents Ireland with both a significant challenge and considerable opportunity. Given Ireland's history of emigration and migration, the country has a special responsibility to address the challenge of immigration.

As my party leader stated earlier this year, as a people, we understand better than most the special challenges of immigration and integrating new communities. Now is the time for a real national debate on these issues so that we can make the necessary changes to meet these new challenges. We have a chance to get this response right and to avoid the mistakes that were made elsewhere.

Immigration and multiculturalism can be good for Ireland but the current system is not being managed well. We need a system that is good for the Irish and good for the immigrants. As of now, we have a system that is not serving the interests of either.

My party has three priorities to make immigration work for Ireland. First, immigrants have rights and responsibilities. They should have the right to be free of discrimination and have their contribution to the country recognised, but they have the responsibility to integrate into our community, comply with our laws and respect our cultural traditions. We do not want to see a situation developing in which our immigrant population live separate lives. We have a responsibility to facilitate and encourage this integration.

Second, immigration must be managed in a way that keeps Ireland safe. We must ensure that Irish laws are understood by and adhered to by immigrants. We also need to send a strong message that people who want to come to this country to commit serious crime are not welcome and will be dealt with severely.

Critically, and most importantly in the context of this Bill, immigration must be a force for improving, not threatening, living standards. We must protect Irish jobs and the rights of those who come to work here. Companies that pay below the minimum wage should pay severe fines, and immigration levels from non-EU countries must be explicitly linked to economic conditions and the needs of the labour market.

As we are discussing the Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Bill, it would be remiss not to address the issue of job losses and costs. Ireland has managed to sustain significant economic growth by attracting foreign investment, but the sequence of high profile job losses in various multinational companies is a worrying trend. It has become common practice for many high profile companies to engage in global rationalisation as a code word for moving jobs from Ireland's high cost base.

Since 2001, the Government has been warned at the highest level by the National Competitiveness Council of the dangerous direction that policy on business costs was taking. Nothing has been done to address the problems of energy, broadband, telecommunications and other infrastructural difficulties to ensure that the Irish economy is well equipped to tackle fierce competition.

Since this Government came to power it has imposed at least 50 stealth taxes and charges on businesses and consumers. Compared with the UK, electricity is 50% more expensive, landfill costs are 350% higher, insurance is 20% more expensive and broadband is 10% more expensive. Meanwhile, inflation continues to rise and now stands at 4.9%.

Competition from eastern Europe, India and China is still in its infancy and is likely to intensify significantly in years to come. The Government cannot afford to bury its head in the sand any longer. We urgently need an all-party debate on how best to cope with the enormous competition faced from overseas in light of the burgeoning cost base in Ireland.

Companies have been liquidated and my colleague, Senator Finucane, before he left earlier for another engagement, informed me of one such company of which the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, might well be aware. The companies concerned pay the statutory two-weeks' redundancy but on liquidation, as I understand it, refund 40% of that to the State. Would the Minister of State consider using such refunds to the State to benefit workers, particularly in the case of the company Senator Finucane has in mind and perhaps one or two others the Minister of State might have had in mind when we discussed the matter earlier, especially where they are only paid the bare minimum? These people have suffered the sad trauma of redundancy. The Minister of State might have a view on that. Perhaps there is something that could be done in the context of this Bill to help alleviate the situation further.