Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I accept Senator Casey's bona fides and I have no doubt that he is a good employer. I am delighted that he acknowledges the value of the JLC system when it was in place. To be clear, I never said that workers do not have any rights. I noted something that is factually correct, namely, that this State is one of only two countries in Europe which do not have collective bargaining rights. In other words, I am pointing out that an employer can legally refuse to recognise that his or her employees are members of a union and legally refuse to deal with that union. This is a fact and it is something that the trade union movement along with Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and others have been trying to address and correct for years.

Unfortunately, whether it is Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in government, the change we have been seeking has not been delivered. That is a fact. We do not have collective bargaining rights in this State. They were introduced in the Six Counties but we do not have them here. By the way, the world did not collapse in the Six Counties because workers have a statutory right to collective bargaining. Just as Senator Casey testifies to being a good employer, which I accept, I can testify that whenever trade unions try to organise workers, whether in meat factories, nursing homes or catering firms-----