Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment. I have gotten to know him reasonably well through the Council of Europe and have no doubt he will be a dedicated Minister of State. I wish him well before I disagree with many aspects of Government policy.

The Bill is broadly to be welcomed. It is indicative of the extraordinary times we live in. The purpose of the Bill is to address operational issues in respect of compliance arising under the Companies Act 2014 and the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1893 to 2018 as a result of Covid-19. These changes include the ability to hold meetings, such as general meetings, through video technology, for the use of electronic communication in general during the interim period, increasing the debt threshold at which a company can be wound up and increasing the examinership period. The elements of the Bill which deal with instances in which companies and small businesses struggle with debt are extremely welcome. Perhaps the Minister will commit to a report into that €10,000 level of debt figure for a company being wound up and liaising with stakeholders into the future.The severe pressures on the cashflow and threshold at which businesses are deemed unable to pay their debts for the purposes of being wound up by the court are extremely low in normal times and that is why it is imperative that they are increased during these extraordinary times. We welcome that measure.

In that regard, the Bill seeks to support as many businesses as possible to trade through the crisis, thus supporting economic recovery and preserving employment. Increasing the period of examinership by 50 days provides similar support and will allow businesses additional breathing space within which to formulate a restructuring plan. Much more needs to be done for businesses, however. Businesses were waiting weeks for the Government's July stimulus package, but now that it has been announced many are describing it as deeply disappointing.

Businesses are struggling to get back up and running and have been calling for liquidity injections through grants. Instead of a comprehensive and funded grant scheme, however, they are being asked to take on more debt through loans and that is something many simply cannot do. This July stimulus package has a 4:1 debt-to-grant ratio. This flies in the face of what the Government has been advocating in Europe. The Taoiseach spent last weekend preaching about the need for grants in Brussels, but his Government has pushed debt through loans for SMEs at home. Businesses were calling out an economic lifebuoy and the Government has thrown them an anchor.

The changes in the Bill regarding the ability to hold remote meetings, such as general meetings, through video technology and the use of electronic communications in general during the interim period will help to streamline proceedings for businesses. They are also necessary from a health and safety perspective. The speed at which legislation is rushed through to protect the health and safety of company directors and board members is in stark contrast to the failure of the State to legislate to protect ordinary workers on the shop floor, on the hospital ward or in the meat factory. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, has been to the fore in campaigning for a simple change by way of regulation, not even legislation, to make workplace outbreaks of Covid-19 notifiable to the Health and Safety Authority, HSA. At the stroke of a pen in an office in Government Buildings, workers could have had additional protections for their health and safety. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, refused to do this, however, and the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Varadkar, is also refusing to make this change.

Incidents of Covid-19 in workplaces such as meat plants, including in the Minister of State's constituency, were rife during the lockdown and many workers were put in danger because of the rapid development of clusters. Was emergency legislation rushed through to protect those workers? No, not a single thing was done for them. When we hear the phrase, "we are all in it together", perhaps we should ask those meat factory workers about it. Instead of pulling on their protective safety gear, perhaps they should have gone into work wearing a suit and tie and with a briefcase. Perhaps then Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil would have thought them worthy of protection.

One of the reasons for this situation is that an outbreak of Covid-19 is not a occupational illness notifiable to the HSA owing to a lacuna in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. Sinn Féin has published legislation to address this issue. It aims to protect workers in all workplaces, whether in meat plants, in care homes, on building sites or in office blocks in the IFSC. It is our hope that the Minister will amend the relevant regulations and that this legislation will not be needed. However, if he does not take the necessary steps to protect workers, Sinn Féin will move the Bill.

The failure to properly staff the HSA also exposes the hypocrisy of this Government when it comes to how certain workers are treated differently. Only 67 HSA inspectors are available to carry out protocol-related inspections. The Return to Work Safely Protocol was designed to support employers and protect workers as they returned to work and as we moved through the Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business. The protocol was developed following high-level dialogue between the Government, trade unions and employer representatives on the best way to ensure the spread of Covid-19 was prevented and workers were kept safe as the economy opens. The protocol has excellent information and safety recommendations and the HSA was tasked with carrying out Return to Work Safely Protocol inspections. The role of the HSA, the body responsible for enforcing health and safety law, promoting accident prevention and providing information and advice, is essential in ensuring that workers are kept safe and the protocol is adhered to. Frustratingly, however, the HSA has not been given sufficient resources to increase the number of dedicated inspectors it has to carry out protocol-related inspections. Data provided in a reply to a parliamentary question from my colleague, Deputy O'Reilly, has revealed that the HSA has only 67 inspectors to cover 271,000 businesses in the State.The situation is a farce and makes a mockery of the protocol by putting workers and public health at risk.

Tens of thousands of people responded to the Be On Call for Ireland campaign, but only a handful were given jobs. I am sure that within those thousands of applications there are several people with health and safety qualifications who could be employed to carry out inspections. We need to get real about workers' rights in the Covid-19 environment and we need to protect workers in the supermarket or meat factory just as much as company directors down in the IFSC.

I will make one more general point which I will deal with further in my amendments. This Bill is a missed opportunity. We could make one more simple change regarding co-operatives to make it much easier to set them up by reducing the number of people required to do so from seven to three. We know many businesses may not make it back after this crisis, but if we had an option to give workers the opportunity to turn those businesses into workers' co-operatives, we could save jobs and build community wealth. This issue has come up several times and I have liaised with many people across the co-operative movements regarding it. Their number one request is to reduce the number of members required to form a co-operative from seven to three. We could do that very simply now.

As the Minister of State will have seen in my amendments, we could also implement the proposals in the Duffy Cahill report and provide in the legislation protection to ensure there is no repeat of what happened to the Debenhams workers. Given the decision to rush through this emergency legislation, why are the Debenhams workers not being protected in the same way? Why have we not taken the time today to ensure those workers in Cork, Limerick, Dublin, Waterford and Galway are given the same protections? We could do this today through my amendments. This Bill shows a lack of ambition. If we are in an emergency, let us be real about all of us being in this together by ensuring that workers are protected as well. It can be done today with the support of the Minister of State.