Alan Kelly (Labour)

I ask for the Minister of State with responsibility for labour affairs to come to the House. The House had an excellent debate last night on the Labour Party Bill on agency workers. A number of speakers from across the House were in favour of the spirit of the Bill. It was a pity they could not walk through the lobbies in support of it. The debate raised many issues to do with labour affairs which the House needs to debate further. It is not just to do with agency workers and the vulnerable people in society. There is a discourse on the treatment of workers which is worrying. I note that four newspapers, all with similar titles and one of which is based in my county, dismissed their staff. They gave the staff 24 hours' notice and then they locked the doors and closed the premises. The staff are still waiting to receive their pay and their redundancy money. This is no way to treat workers. Despite what we say about them, journalists in general are not highly paid. The majority do not earn large amounts of money and the ones in the case I highlighted were treated in a disgraceful manner.

I wish to propose an amendment to the Order of Business. No. 19, motion 35 on the Order Paper is a Labour Party motion on the undocumented Irish in the United States. I propose that this be discussed after the Order of Business and without debate if possible. I respect the views of Senator McFadden which I support wholeheartedly. I spoke to a number of people in America in the past 24 hours and they were delighted when I told them I was proposing this motion. Members on the other side of the House have supported a motion on this matter in the past and this motion is the same as that passed in the other House. I told the people I was speaking to last night that the House has a very honourable Leader and that I was sure he and his party and the Government would fully support this motion. I hope the Leader will accept this motion in the spirit in which it is given and in the run-up to St. Patrick's day so that the undocumented Irish in America would be given the full support of this House and that this motion would be passed without debate.