Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Bruton, to the House and thank him for attending personally to deal with this important motion on the part of the Labour Party Senators. I am grateful to my colleague, Senator Landy, for proposing the motion, particularly given the area from which he comes and his local knowledge. I also acknowledge the presence in the Visitors' Gallery of Deputy Ann Phelan, who with Deputy Ciara Conway, also of the Labour Party, has been very active on this issue.

In any discussion of a motion such as this, the first matter is to offer our sympathy to the workers at the TalkTalk call centre in Waterford. The devastating loss of 575 jobs was a tragedy for the south east and the Waterford area, in particular. I have a personal interest in jobs in the south east region. My grandfather, Charles Bacik, who came to Ireland from the Czech Republic in 1946, set up Waterford Glass after World War II. At one time that company was the biggest employer in the Waterford area and it was with great sadness we saw its closure. However, a positive story is emerging from Waterford Glass with the new Waterford Crystal showroom which is a great draw to the city. I visited it last year. It is a very impressive facility and there is much manufacturing taking place. I hope this will continue.

There has been very bad news on the jobs front in the south east. As the Minister will be aware, the unemployment rate in the region has consistently been above the national average, being at 18.2% currently, compared with 14.3% nationally. The closure of TalkTalk came in a context where there was already a serious issue in regard to job retention in the south east. As our motion notes, when the job losses were announced, only 30 days' notice of the closure of the call centre was given to the employees, with no extra notice given to the Government. That was in spite of the fact that the State had provided significant financial incentives to TalkTalk, as we do to multinational companies which establish in the State. When the closure was announced the response of the Government was commendable. As Senator Landy observed, the Minister and other senior members of the Government, including the Tánaiste, visited Waterford and met with the workers from TalkTalk, which was very welcome.

However, as our motion points out, there are reports suggesting that further collective job losses at other companies in the forseeable future may be likely. What we are seeking, therefore, is twofold. First, we propose that greater protections be put in place by this Government to assist employees in any company, including TalkTalk, who face collective redundancy situations. In particular, as Senator Landy stated, we propose that existing legislation be reviewed in order to provide for a longer notice period than 30 days, especially in cases where a large company is proposing to make collective redundancies. We are conscious that an extension of the 30-day period could be made within the terms of the EU directive.

The motion also looks at the bigger picture and commends the Government for the introduction of job creation initiatives. It seeks to explore what else might be done for job creation. We all hope to hear constructive suggestions today in the Seanad as to how job creation strategies could be developed.

We acknowledge the work in job creation already done by this Government in the short time it has been in office. We have put jobs at the top of the agenda, as promised in the programme for Government. We have carried out a number of measures which are already having an impact on job creation and retention, such as the restoration of the national minimum wage, the cutting of PRSI and VAT rates and the introduction of the JobBridge, Springboard and other programmes for job creation and internship schemes, as are noted in the motion.

I turn to the issue of protection of workers in collective redundancy situations. The notice period is a key issue for my party. I emphasise a further issue that was noted by Senator Landy, namely, support from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and whether further funding can be sought for the TalkTalk workers from that fund. As we heard, funding has already been sought for other mass redundancy situations in companies such as Waterford Crystal, Dell and SR Technics.

There are other issues in regard to redundancy and job losses which are rather different. One point was raised with me on a number of occasions during the general election campaign and I have no doubt it was raised also on doorsteps with many other Members. It concerns self-employed people, entrepreneurs whose businesses collapsed, and who, in many cases, had employed several people. The persons involved have very little protection in this situation which does not fit the definition of redundancy under EU or national law. I raise that point with the Minister, as I have done with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, under whose remit it comes.

On job creation, the third anniversary of the bank guarantee falls this week, as Senator Barrett pointed out. It is a significant anniversary. It sticks in the throats of all of us to have to see a further recapitalisation of banks and additional billions of euro going to Anglo Irish Bank, which is the subject of the related amendment. However, as the Government has consistently maintained, the restructuring and recapitalisation of banks is necessary in order to ensure that we have economic growth and to get us out of the economic crisis created by the failed policies of the previous Fianna Fáil-led Government. It is not appropriate that we, as proposers of the motion, would accept the amendment, which misses the point of our argument. It is two-fold point which we hope the Minister will address. First, there should be greater protection in collective redundancy cases, particularly with regard to lengthening of the notice period and, second, we should consider how best to ensure job creation and retention policies that work. There were some very positive announcements in the recent past and Senator Landy referred to some in his area. There are also plenty in Dublin taking in development of jobs and creation of further employment backed by the IDA. We hope to see more of it in future.