Dail report: General Electric was yesterday named as the company which had engaged in a "legal swindle" to acquire IDA-owned land at Clonshaugh in north Dublin.
The move by the multinational company to acquire the land forced the Government to rush emergency ground rent legislation through the Dáil and Seanad earlier this year when it emerged that the State's ownership of a further 700 IDA properties was at risk because of the legal loophole.
Yesterday Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins named the company involved as General Electric, a partner of the construction company Gama.
He said General Electric in Clonshaugh in north Dublin, "sets up puppet companies so that it can set about a legal swindle to compel the IDA to pay it millions of euro for land belonging to the Irish people".
He said General Electric had used the proceeds of the sale to "finance its industrial diamond innovations to force a redundancy deal on 50 workers, whom it bullies and pressurises into accepting, so it can replace them with cheap labour for its industrial diamond enterprises".
General Electric set up a "puppet company" allowing it to buy IDA industrial land outright and lifting restricted usage. The IDA practice of selling property was through a 999-year lease. IDA property leased in 1981 to one company was subsequently sub-leased twice and an anomaly allowed the lease to be "extinguished".
Mr Higgins raised the issue when he claimed Irish labour laws "allow ruthless exploiters of workers, whether Irish or migrant workers, to hide behind the courts and the laws of this land in having shameful truths suppressed".
The Dublin West TD was referring to the decision on Tuesday by the High Court to prohibit the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from publishing the labour inspectorate report on Gama Construction and the controversy over underpayment of its Turkish workers.
He also claimed that workers at Global Mobile Vision, a provider of data content services to mobile phones, had approached Independent deputies with "serious allegations of wages paid late, harassment and bullying".
But Tánaiste Mary Harney said that "in regard to GMV, I understand that matter is being investigated".
She also insisted Ireland had "strong laws in regard to unfair dismissal and constructive dismissal. Where there are deficiencies in legislation, they will be addressed, but the enforcement of the law is a crucial issue."
Mr Higgins alleged Irish labour laws were "pathetically inadequate in vindicating the rights and entitlements of workers in this State".
Mr Higgins claimed Irish labour laws favoured "ruthless bosses who can buy the most expensive lawyers in town, hired guns, and in the meantime intimidate, sack or otherwise silence employees seeking their rights". The industrial relations machinery was unable to cope with that, he claimed.
Ms Harney said "we have a robust labour relations machinery in this State that acts very speedily and quickly". Ireland's legislation compared "extraordinarily favourably with many other countries", she said.
Mr Higgins accused the Tánaiste of being "a champion of the neo-liberal jungle".
Ms Harney replied she was a champion of policies that created high-quality employment.
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