Industrial Disputes
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-18
============================================================

Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as a bheith anseo anocht chun an cheist seo a phlé. My colleague, Deputy Cullinane, set out the position in his contribution. He and I met with this group of former Waterford Crystal workers just last week. To be honest, they are worn out by this. They have been at it for years. They have had years of being fobbed off. These are decent, hardworking men. They worked hard and honestly for Waterford Crystal. They were made redundant. They were kept in the dark at that time about their options. In fact, they were never told about their options. That failure to inform them has cost them real money and it is money that would have made a real difference in their lives up until now. If this is resolved, that money could make a very real difference to their lives.
Time is not on the side of these individuals. Whatever way we cut it, and whatever happened in the early nineties, the State had, and has, a duty to protect its citizens, underwrite fairness, guarantee justice and ensure rights are upheld. When workers are made redundant, through no fault of their own, they must have the ability to make decisions with information. Informed consent is at the core of everything. These workers did not get that and, instead of fixing it, the Government is washing its hands and ignoring them. It is not good enough and it needs to be resolved.
Critically, these men want to meet with the Minister so that he can hear their story about the injustice done to them and how it has impacted their lives. Following that, they want him to resolve it. That is where he can make the difference. For decades, these men have been ignored and the injustice of what was done to them explained away. The goalposts shifted, with previous Ministers saying one thing and Ministers of State on local radio saying another, while responses to parliamentary questions said another thing entirely. That is not good enough. I implore the Minister to meet these men, hear them out and do everything he can, with his officials, to work on a solution that will give them some comfort and justice as they finish their retirement.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-18