Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein)

Last week, it was announced that Penneys was making 100 of its Dublin staff redundant as part of a plan to outsource many of its roles to India. This decision was taken not out of necessity but out of a desire to maximise profits for the bosses and shareholders. Penneys is not a company that is struggling and it has been expanding rapidly across Europe, North America and Asia. Penneys made record profits last year as a result of the hard work of the underpaid staff and now many of these workers will find themselves unemployed and on the streets. It is very disappointing that an Irish company would do this to its own workers and be so callous about their careers and lives. Unfortunately, this is not a new development in Ireland. The reality of a globalised economy is that corporations can pick up and move operations to wherever has the lowest labour costs and the State offers very few protections to workers who are out of employment due to overseas outsourcing.

There are no protections for workers made redundant due to foreign outsourcing. Currently, only workers affected by domestic outsourcing are protected and that needs to be examined. It is very important that these workers who are made redundant are supported by the State and are not abandoned like the Debenhams workers who bravely fought for their rights for more than 400 days. I hope the Minister for enterprise is treating the issue very seriously and is actively looking for a way to assist these unemployed workers. Likewise, I believe it is very important for us in this House to have a debate on workers' rights and employment protections.