Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom aontú leis na cainteoirí ar an dtaobh seo den Teach atá tar éis a gcuid imní maidir leis an díolachán atá ar bun de Aer Lingus a lua chomh maith.

What is happening around the Aer Lingus debacle is really disgraceful, rushing through such an important and strategic decision without the full information being given to these Houses, without proper debate and without allowing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications to go through it in great detail. It reminds me of previous debacles such as Irish Water and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, IBRC, when the Government said “Don’t worry lads, this will be all right, just take our word for it”. We can see what happened as a result. I support the call for the amendment to the Order of Business. The fact that workers’ rights are being left as the final thing to be tied up or discussed in such situations is indicative of the way this Government approaches workers’ rights. There are other situations, such as the Dunnes Stores scenario and the zero hour contracts, which are ongoing.

This type of attitude is filtering into local communities. I am aware of a nursing home in Tuam in County Galway that refuses to recognise the rights of workers there to union recognition. The workers in that nursing home work very hard and have been looking for that right through the State’s mechanisms but the employers are turning it down point blank. It is about time the Labour Party stood up, said enough is enough and that it will not stand for this trampling on workers’ rights any more. The problems around the pensions in Aer Lingus show that Fine Gael has made the Labour Party capitulate on these issues. This is Labour Party’s chance to stand up and be counted and try to salvage something from a Government which has a pitiful record on workers’ rights.