I thank Sinn Féin for this important motion. I obviously agree with all of the points put forward about collective bargaining rights, providing unions access to the workplace, bringing the minimum wage in line with the living wage and the issue of workers' right to remote working. I want to give a shout out to a few specific groups of workers. The first is the Oireachtas TV workers. They tell me that the people who broadcast these proceedings are being left off the roster because of their union activities and because they have campaigned over what is really shameful. They are doing us and the country a big favour, although maybe it is debatable that they are doing the country a favour by broadcasting what goes on in here but it is a public service. Some of them are earning about €12,000 per year and are laid off when the Dáil is in recess during the summer holidays, Christmas and all the rest. They are disgraceful conditions for people who are providing an important service for democracy and for this House. Nothing has been done about it. The company making profits from all of this continues to get the contract again and again. It is outrageous. Something needs to be done about it. It is disgraceful that has been let stand. Second, I mentioned the Covalen issues already. I mentioned it earlier on and it has been mentioned here again. Covalen made €26 million in profit the year before last. It is a major contractor for META that is making absolute billions. These are the content moderators who protect people against the toxic content you get on social media and all the rest of it, who are then training up the AI that replaces them. Covalen benefits from all sorts of tax breaks and reductions and all that kind of stuff, such as research and development tax credits, no doubt, but refused to recognise the union and now 700 workers, and 300 before that, were told their jobs are gone without a by-your-leave. There will be no redundancy and Covalen refuses to engage with the union. Employers should not be allowed to do that to workers. It is as simple as that. Yet, this Government does not stand with the workers but instead bends over backwards for these companies that exploit workers, make super profits and treats them in this utterly disgraceful way. I spoke to those workers, their union representatives, the Communication Workers Union, CWU, and their shop stewards this morning and they are asking the Government for an intervention. They want to meet the Taoiseach and the senior Minister and they want the Government to intervene with Meta to engage with the union and to, at least, insist something is done about this six-month cooling-off period - it means they cannot get a job elsewhere - so they can get alternative employment.

Sentiment score: 0.13