Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this legislation and the debate around it. Senators' views diverge on the issue of whether critical workers should be allowed to use the ultimate sanction of striking when it comes to industrial action or whether there should be a minimum level of service.

One of the critical issues concerns those at home, who have necessary and vital equipment for kidney dialysis and medical devices to keep them alive and healthy. We know hospitals and vital services have back-up generators but there is the issue of ensuring critical industries are maintained and sustained during any period of industrial action. Some of the views expressed in the debate on the topic among our group concerns where to draw the line on critical industry. Electricity is one, so are water and telecommunications. Very few utilities are not critical.

Senator Whelan pointed out that this is the 100th anniversary of the Lock-out. There is a fine balance between the worker and the employer. Where the worker has a monopoly, being the only provider, he can hold the State to ransom and that situation must be dealt with through the trade union mechanism. The worker has the sanction of strike but if he or she did not, the balance of power would go to the employer. The ESB is a semi-State company with a commercial mandate and has the objective of making money as well as providing electricity. If the bonuses, to use the word bandied about in the committee rooms today, of such employers are related to profits and the workers do not have the sanction of striking, the employer will continue to make profit at the cost to the employee.

We have seen this in private industry in respect of pensions and pension rights. In private industry, pensions were not there when the workers needed them. There is no sanction for the employer. Where did it go? Who was in charge of ensuring the fund was there for workers? The ESB workers do not have a State pension to fall back on, as may be the case for others. One of the critical points is Irish Water, a huge superquango that is a disaster given that we cannot measure the quantity of water being used in urban areas such as Dublin. Nevertheless, we will spend billions of euro putting in infrastructure through a superquango that may not fulfil its remit. It is an essential service.

The issue of the strike is off the table and it takes away the pressure from the debate. However, if everyone's electricity was to be shut off on Monday morning and we were receiving phone calls about the electricity being shut off, Senator Quinn would have a heated debate. The country could not tolerate it in respect of those who would rely on it for life-sustaining medical devices and maintaining current jobs. It would be a disaster for the country. If the industrial relations mechanism had failed abysmally, we would be a different situation. We would be voting on it but with a different view taken by the Government. The chief executive officers of large multinationals and Retail Excellence Ireland said this is vital. That is why we have labour relations mechanisms, which are tortuous but exist so that it does not come to the 11th hour, at which point we are facing emergency legislation to prevent the strike and to keep on the lights. I welcome the debate on the Bill. The Bill might be brought back by the Government.