Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I join other speakers in paying tribute to the people involved in the "Prime Time Investigates" programme last night. It is an investigative programme which deserves accolades for what it has done. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister with responsibility for labour affairs to the House for a discussion on the deplorable working conditions of many workers. I am sure the Leader will join all of us who condemned the treatment of the workers depicted in the programme last night, in particular regarding the issue of road safety. If that was an Irish diaspora community 30 years ago in London or America, we would be on our feet in outrage. In today's new Ireland, all of us as legislators and public representatives have a duty to condemn outright the treatment of workers, regardless of who they are or from where they come. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister with responsibility for labour affairs to the House for an urgent debate on that issue.

Like Senator Fitzgerald, I ask for a debate on reform of the public service. As a society, we have lampooned public servants unfairly. The Government has treated public servants badly. All it has unveiled is a botched decentralisation programme and wrongly blamed workers in the public service. They deserve to be respected and treated properly and they deserve leadership from Government, which they have not got. That debate is long overdue.