Irish Ferries accused of gross exploitation

Irish Ferries was accused in the Dáil of looking for a "criminally cheap labour force".

Fine Gael's enterprise spokesman Phil Hogan made the comment during a debate on legislation aimed at preventing a recurrence of the Irish Ferries case.

Irish workers were made redundant and replaced by Eastern European workers employed at a lower rate.

The company was given €4.3 million towards the statutory redundancies of 400 people.

Mr Hogan said the legislation "will help to ensure that no such practices are encountered in future".

The Protection of Employment (Exceptional Redundancies and Related Matters) Bill will establish a redundancy panel, drawn from the social partners, to ask the Minister for Enterprise to refer dismissals to the Labour Court to determine whether they are genuine.

Mr Hogan said "it is entirely right that the Minister will be able to refuse to pay a redundancy rebate on the basis of a Labour Court decision".

He continued: "We used to struggle to keep workers from leaving, but now we are struggling to stop the jobs we have in abundance from being devalued."

The action by Irish Ferries "constituted the worst type of Dickensian exploitation we have ever seen in this country".

He said the company was Irish and should be subject to Irish law.

The Bill was introduced by Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen.

He said "it is the Government's intention that the Bill be enacted quickly so that the protection it contains can be made available at the earliest opportunity".