George Lawlor accuses government of abandoning low-paid workers

Thank you. Minister, I appreciate that you have been somewhat thrown under a bus on this by your Fine Gael government colleague. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd stand in this August chamber and say that Winston Churchill appeared to have more affinity and commitment to the workers of Ireland than the Fianna Fáil party and this government. In 1909 Winston Churchill brought in the trade boards so that underrepresented workers, undervalued workers and underpaid workers could be represented by the trade boards. In 1946 a man who, listen to this, must be spinning in his grave. A man who sat in this chamber, a man of the Fianna Fáil party who did so much wonderful things for this country at a time when we needed the most, Sean Lamass. Must be spinning in his grave as he hears that this government is opposing this long overdue bill and in doing so effectively supporting powerful employers to ride roughshod over undervalued, underpaid workers in this state. Minister, I appreciate, as I've said, and I don't think you, I don't think your heart is in that response to be honest with you. I don't think you, when reading that, were committed to what was in that response. And as I said, I think you've been thrown under the bus because this is a shocking admission by the government that they are not going to support underpaid, undervalued workers. And you're going to facilitate powerful employers to veto a structure that was set up in 1946 by Sean Lamass to facilitate workers being represented at JLCs. You talk about it being adversarial. What's adversarial is when powerful employers refuse to engage in a mechanism that has worked in other sectors. You spoke in your response, you spoke about the childcare and security sectors. You spoke about how they had seen great improvements in their conditions. The reason they saw great improvements in their conditions is because both sides engaged with the JLC process. So you're sort of arguing against yourself, or the piece of paper you're reading from is arguing against itself by saying that was great, but God, we can't allow adversarial situations to come up. We must avoid any legal proceedings that may take place following a binding agreement that is reached in the JLC in a respectful manner. So the notion that Winston we could do would back the British Bulldog to say to Irish workers, I'll represent you because this government is clearly not representing workers in the likes of the hotel sector. You say it's premature, 1909, 1946, mechanisms were introduced into this country, even when we were under British rule, and later by Sean Lamass, were introduced to ensure that workers in low paid sectors got their representation. They weren't looking for the moon, they were looking for decent, honourable representation. And how did the powerful employers get around that? We'll ignore the whole set-up. We'll employ our legal advisors to tell us what to do, and they'll tell us to ignore the whole set-up, and not play any role or any part in it. And therefore, the little guy who's working in the hotel, or the man or woman who's working in the hotel sector on low pay, sure, lookit, we can walk all over those. That's what we're doing, and that's what this government is acceding to, by refusing to accept this non-radical, very simple proposal of a bill to improve the lots of workers' rights. I urge you, Minister, to go back to the Fine Gael Minister who's thrown you under the bus, and I ask you to get them to reflect, because I know, I knew when you were reading it out, your heart and soul certainly wasn't in the text that was on that sheet, because that's not your style. I urge you to go back to your colleagues in government, and ask them to respect the rights of low paid workers in this country, in a sector that needs it most. And reflect on the history of the great party that you come from, and a man who did so much for this country, and what he wanted to establish work mechanisms to support workers' rights. I ask you to reflect on it before I vote next week. Thank you very much.