Last week the Taoiseach urged KPMG to talk to the Debenhams workers. Not only has KPMG failed to act on that suggestion, but non-union labour is now being hired to pass picket lines and go into the stores to pack stock that is at the centre of an industrial dispute. In other words the liquidator, appointed by the courts, is overseeing a scabbing operation organised on a national basis. I appeal to those non-union workers to refuse to do KPMG's dirty work and to respect the picket lines that have been organised by t…

I welcome the fact that taxi drivers in Cork will protest next Monday morning. Their demands are just and the Government should concede to them. Many of them actually involve no cost. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the fiasco facing transport workers at Aer Lingus regarding the stamping of social welfare forms for workers on short-term working contracts is anything other than a ploy designed to drive those workers to despair and force them to quit their jobs without redundancy. The original claim by the M…

It is an ominous combination to have both the incidence of Covid-19 and the number of evictions on the rise at the same time. We know Covid infection rates are on the rise and we have a lot of anecdotal evidence that evictions are increasing. Next week, the official figures for the numbers in emergency accommodation at the end of August will be announced. I expect those figures to confirm that evictions are on the rise, possibly in a dramatic fashion. The Government weakened the anti-eviction legislation. No amount…

A Cheann Comhairle, what day is it today?

It is Thursday. It is also the day the Government is cutting the pandemic unemployment payment by €50 per week for many people and €100 for many other people. It is not a small adjustment, not a few bob here or a few bob there, but a cut of €100 or €50 per week for tens of thousands of people who do not have the option of going back to work. It is not possible for them to do so in the vast majority of cases because of the pandemic. It might be one thing if the virus were settling down, if the situation were improvi…

Was yesterday's taxi protest the largest in the history of the State? If it was not, it was certainly the largest taxi protest seen in this country this century. Why would it not be? Nearly one taxi driver in four is disqualified from the Covid payment on the grounds of age. The Government has refused to put together a proper package to assist drivers to go back to work. How many people were at the protest? I am not sure if anyone can say with certainty. The taxi unions originally estimated that there would be 1,50…

Where is the Minister?

Where is the Minister?

I want to know where the Minister is. The Debenhams workers would like to know where is the Minister.

We have been saying that for months.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Mandate trade union recently made a proposal to the Government. It was a proposal which had the potential to resolve the five-month long Debenhams dispute. The gist of it was one, increasing employer social insurance contributions and two, making a pool of money available to the State from which enhanced redundancy agreements could be honoured in cases of liquidation. It was suggested that were this to be agreed in principle, an advance payment of €10 million could be made…

At the start of the Covid crisis we were told that there was a need for national unity and that we were all in this together. The treatment of the Debenhams workers shows that we are not all in this together. In the words of the United Irishman leader, Henry Joy McCracken, "The rich will always betray the poor." Debenhams is not the only employer using Covid as cover to promote a race to the bottom. There are many others, some of whom I propose to call out this evening. We have the case of Aer Lingus, a privatised …

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, and the Mandate trade union have sent proposals to the Government for a State-run scheme to fund enhanced redundancies in the event of liquidation and to be paid for by increased employer social insurance contributions. It has been suggested that were such a scheme to be agreed in principle an advance payment might be made to resolve the Debenhams dispute by meeting the demand of the workers for two plus two or four week's pay per year of service. The view from the picket l…

It is a matter of concern to me that anti-face mask protests have been organised across the country in recent weeks. I believe that those who are anti-masks and organising these marches are anti-workers because wearing a mask protects the worker behind the counter in the shop, the driver on the bus and so on. These marches, in most cases, have been organised by the far right. They have tried to build a base on racism and on homophobia and they are now trying to do it on the basis of frustration with coronavirus res…

Can the Taoiseach report on any initiatives from the Cabinet sub-committee in terms of promoting face masks? I believe there needs to be a mass campaign of worker activists on the left to challenge this development.

Many Aer Lingus workers have been reduced from 50% to 30% of their wages and are unable to claim social welfare payments. People with families and mortgages have been left to survive on between €100 and €200 a week. Can the Taoiseach imagine the resulting stress and the toll on people's mental health? Uproar followed and the Government has now assured workers that payments have been sanctioned, but I want to ask the Taoiseach if this is really the case. Reports of workers being refused are still coming in. Finally,…

Today at 6.15 a.m., ex-workers from Debenhams stores at Mahon Point, St. Patrick's Street and Tralee occupied the St. Patrick's Street store in Cork city. At 7 a.m., workers and supporters occupied the store at Henry Street, Dublin. As the news broke on "Morning Ireland", I have no doubt but that working people across the country will have silently cheered. Everybody knows by now that this dispute is a litmus test for how workers' rights fare in this pandemic. The workers sitting in were stepping up their campaign …

The Taoiseach said the offer was not a Government offer. I never said it was.

I said that the Taoiseach and his Government had sight of that offer before it was put on the table and the Taoiseach did not deny that was the case.

His backbenchers were going around the picket lines for days previously giving the workers the broad outline of the offer. I ask the Taoiseach not to take people for fools. He was part and parcel of an insulting offer that was made to these workers. The workers the Taoiseach met in Government Buildings and whom he has just spoken about organised a rally outside the shop today at which thousands of leaflets were distributed. The workers made very clear that they feel the Taoiseach and other Government Deputies have …