Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Dooley’s call for a debate on Shannon Airport. The experiment of an independent Shannon Airport has failed miserably and we urgently need that debate before any further attacks on the terms and conditions of the workers in Shannon Airport.

Today I want to call for a debate on the pay and conditions of our front-line workers. We have seen tremendous support and recognition of their work but I have to ask how much this Government really values the work of these front-line workers. I could give any number of examples but I will give the example of contract cleaners who put their lives on the line each day. Indeed, one contract cleaner in a hospital lost his life during this crisis. We have hundreds of contract cleaners supporting the health service across the country. They are paid the princely sum of €10.80 an hour. Imagine putting one’s life on the line each day for €10.80. They were promised under a new employment regulation order an increase to €11.20 but that was then withdrawn by the Irish Contract Cleaning Association. The Irish contract cleaning companies were too concerned about their profits to worry about what a contract cleaner in a hospital should earn.

I want to put down a challenge to this Government. Let us judge this Government by the difference it makes to our front-line workers not just in terms of applause but in terms of pay, recognition and decency in their terms and conditions at work. If any of the fine words we have heard from all sides in this Chamber mean anything, then we will change those terms and conditions. Why on earth are we outsourcing contract cleaners in our hospitals? When we tried to insource contract cleaners through my union, SIPTU, in Limerick a couple of years ago, conditions and standards improved dramatically. What happened? The HSE intervened. It said it was against its policy and that its policy was to outsource, not to insource. It is high time we got rid of these old-fashioned, failed Thatcherite notions and, more important, began to come up with real solutions to make sure that every front-line worker receives decent pay and conditions. Let us have that debate.