Nicole Ryan (Sinn Fein)

It is frankly embarrassing that we are having a discussion again about workers who make our democracy visible and audible to the public and yet are treated as second-class citizens in the very building where they serve. These skilled professionals are paid half the industry rate with no pension, no healthcare and no job security. They get their shifts at short notice and are often left without an income during recess. Some are on social welfare between sittings. It is a two-tiered system which we would not tolerate anywhere else. What is worse is that public money is being funnelled into a private contract where profit is being prioritised over fairness. This needs immediate intervention. There has been strong and amicable cross-party support to fix this and many of us have spoken directly with the workers. Their demands are modest - decent pay, job stability and access to basic protections – but now we are hitting a bureaucratic brick wall. Parliamentary questions on this issue have been disallowed because we are told it is not the Minister’s responsibility but a letter received by the workers says it is not the commission’s responsibility either. Who is responsible? We need answers and they need answers. The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission does not meet again until 9 July. Meanwhile these workers are stuck underpaid, undervalued and passed from pillar to post. We say we all stand with workers; these are our workers, so let us act like it.