This morning, the striking Debenhams workers occupied stores in Dublin and Cork. They did so after more than 150 days of campaigning for fair treatment from the company that has treated them in an appalling manner. The company, as the Taoiseach knows, simply shut up shop and left workers high and dry. Initially, they were left with only basic State supports and the prospect of statutory redundancy. I am sure the Taoiseach understands the anger and frustration of these workers at this time. The liquidator, KPMG, has now withdrawn the offer it proposed to the workers. This is a very provocative action, especially when we consider the duration of this dispute and everything the workers have been through.

I have raised the issue of the Debenhams workers with the Taoiseach previously. On that occasion I asked him to act immediately to intervene in support of the workers and to legislate so that this disgraceful scenario can never happen again to another worker. At that time, the Taoiseach said he would do everything he could to help the workers. Given what has unfolded today, including the arrest of some Debenhams workers here in Dublin, I want the Taoiseach to set out what he has actually done. Figures released by the European Commission today show Ireland is second only to Spain in terms of jobs lost in the second quarter of this year. A lot of people have lost their jobs and a lot more will lose theirs. This is what makes this Debenhams dispute so important for every vulnerable worker. This is, in fact, a test case for the Government. The Taoiseach gave a commitment that the Government would review company law, which leaves workers in such awful situations, with a view to amending it. Where is this review at? That the Government acts now and stands up for workers and legislates in their interests is not only important for the Debenhams workers, it is also important for every worker throughout the country. The Covid emergency has brought great economic turmoil and many people now look with a level of nervousness and uncertainty, particularly as the Government plans to curtail and cut the pandemic unemployment payment and the employment wage subsidy scheme.

The Taoiseach may say this is very complicated and complex but he knows he has options available to him to protect workers and prevent rogue companies from treating their staff in such a disgraceful way. We in Sinn Féin have published legislation to stop unscrupulous employers using tactical insolvency to avoid their obligations to their workers. The Taoiseach could support that legislation. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has outlined a statutory scheme for the protection of redundancy payments. The Duffy Cahill report presents a range of measures the Government could support and adopt in legislation. The Taoiseach therefore has options but he now has to demonstrate the political will to stand on the side of workers. He needs to start with the Debenhams workers today. He needs to intervene directly on their behalf. He should lift the phone to them at this time when they feel very vulnerable and left behind. He also needs to raise the phone to KPMG and request that it re-enter engagement and negotiation with the workers. It is not good enough for the Government to stand idly by while workers who have given years, in some cases decades, of loyal service give such service only to be abandoned.

I thank Deputy McDonald. Her time is up.

It is not right that these workers have had to stand on picket lines for months on end. The Taoiseach needs to act now. Will he lift the phone to KPMG?

The treatment of the Debenhams workers has been very shabby, shoddy and unacceptable and I have made that point on a number of occasions. Notwithstanding the difficulties the parent company was or is in, the failure to honour the collective agreements into which these workers had entered is unacceptable, and the manner in which they have been treated is unacceptable as far as the performance of the company is concerned. I have met the workers on a number of occasions, both in the Taoiseach's office and on the picket line. They were very exercised and focused on getting a practical outcome to the present dispute, which is difficult.

Last week, as the Deputy will be aware, particularly last Friday, there had been progress, or indications of some progress, in discussions between Mandate Trade Union and the liquidator towards a deal that could be put to the workers in a ballot. I know Sinn Féin welcomed that announcement and the fact that a proposal had been put to the workers after agreement had been reached between Mandate and the Debenhams liquidator. The nature of that offer, however, specifically the overall amount of funding made available, was clearly unacceptable to the workers on the ground. When the amount was divided among all the workers, it paled into relative insignificance in comparison with what they would have expected if the collective agreement had been observed.

The Government has communicated its views to the company. The parent company in the UK was in examinership and is not coming forward with any resources to assist in this situation. All sides must now get back around the table. We have kept in close contact with Mandate on this dispute, its continuation and efforts to try to bring about a resolution to it. Mandate will tell Deputy McDonald, to be fair, that it is challenging to work out a satisfactory package for the workers involved. The Government has committed to reviewing company law more generally to make it very difficult in future - one can never render it impossible - for companies tactically to create situations of this kind, to use the word the Deputy used. There is a range of measures involved, for example, separating assets from trading income, and these loopholes have to be closed. Our view is to take a supportive stance on behalf of the workers. I met ICTU last week and I have met IBEC. I spoke to ICTU at some length on this issue, particularly the legal side and mechanisms that could perhaps be deployed to try to assist the workers at Debenhams but also more generally in situations into the future.

That is the position as of now. We need to get all sides back to the table and to get dialogue opened again to see if a package can be put to the workers in terms of what is available out of that liquidation process. It is beyond the Government's sphere of influence, legally.

Debenhams was not the first offender in using such tactical insolvencies and the loopholes the Taoiseach has described. Everyone will recall Clerys and its workers and will remember that at that time, the political class said it must never happen again. Guess what? It has happened again and will happen again, time after time, in both the retail sector and elsewhere, unless those loopholes are closed. The time for reviewing is over and the time for action is now. When will the law be changed to protect workers in these situations?

The Taoiseach says the workers and all parties should get back around the table. What table? To what table do the liquidator, the company, the workers and their union return? Can the Taoiseach set that out? Engagement is essential. The industrial relations machinery of the State has run its course. That is over and we are dealing with a deeply unjust situation in which workers who have given decades of their lives and of service have been thrown on the scrapheap by Debenhams. The Taoiseach has to intervene with the liquidator and others and tell them to return to the table. What table will that be?

It is the table to which the Deputy has just alluded. She knows what I am saying. Talks should begin. There should be dialogue again between the key interests. The Deputy knows there was ongoing work by Mandate, in particular, to do its best in difficult situations to arrive at and realise a package from the workers. Last Friday, the Deputy welcomed that there was a result from that engagement. However, the scale of the engagement clearly was not sufficient to meet workers' desires, understandably. It did not even get to a ballot. In my view, KPMG, the liquidators, and others should engage in dialogue to see if that package can be improved upon and if we can do the best we possibly can for the workers. That is of immediate relevance to the workers.

We should not try to pretend to the workers that we can do everything and work out a perfect solution. There have been a number of false dawns painted for the workers by others over the last number of weeks. I do not believe that to be helpful. There are real legal constraints in terms of the liquidation process. The Deputy knows that and I know that. It is under the oversight of the High Court. There are real difficulties. There is no point in throwing them to one side or dismissing them. I am interested in seeing how we can help the workers as best we can. The Government will come forward with statutory redundancy and all of that but we have to focus on what we can get out of this desperate situation, which is an unfair situation for the workers. I salute their courage and perseverance. They have kept at this for a long time. I have met them and I have nothing but admiration for them. That is why we will do everything we can to support them in any way we can.

On the review and the Company Law Review Group, the Tánaiste asked it to expedite its assessment of this issue.

The Taoiseach is way over time.

That assessment will be finished by quarter four of this year.

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 for four weeks' redundancy pay per year of service. It is a just campaign.

They were firmly rejecting the insulting offer made to them by KPMG last week, an offer which amounted to the statutory minimum plus one day's pay per year of service. In a company in which most workers worked part-time, the KPMG offer equalled €615 for one part-time worker with 18 years of service and €137 for another part-time worker with six years of service. These are sums of money less than one-tenth of what they would have received under their old deal with Debenhams.

There is a long-standing and proud tradition in this country of worker sit-ins. In Cork, we remember the Vita Cortex workers. Scandalously, people who were sitting in this morning on Henry Street, including shop steward Jane Crowe and workers Doreen Keegan and Seán Powney, were arrested, removed from the store and charged on suspicion of trespass. These workers are not the criminals; they are the victims of a multinational company, which has robbed them of a decent redundancy, engaging in a tactical liquidation while hoarding £95 million in the bank.

The Government has been in power for more than two months. The Taoiseach himself met a delegation of Debenhams workers at Government Buildings. Valerie Conlon was part of that delegation and she is leading the St. Patrick's Street sit-in today. The Taoiseach has stood on the St. Patrick's Street picket line for photographs with these workers. The Taoiseach cannot tell me that he was unaware of the insulting offer that was made to these workers. His own backbench Deputies were telling workers the broad outlines of that deal days before the offer was made. The Taoiseach speaks of these workers having suffered shoddy treatment. Some of the parties that have treated the workers shoddily include the Taoiseach himself, his party and his Government, by standing by and allowing such an insulting offer to be put before them in the first place. How could the Taoiseach be so out of touch that he would think that an offer of €1 million would end a dispute over the need to increase redundancy payments by €10 million? The workers feel they have been badly let down by the Taoiseach. They feel that the KPMG offer, which was withdrawn this morning, must be replaced by an improved offer of four weeks' redundancy per year of service.

I asked the workers sitting in on St. Patrick's Street for a comment that I might read to the Taoiseach at the end of my contribution. They sent me the following comment: "Remember golfgate". It is time to play ball with the Debenhams workers.

The Deputy is correct that I met the workers in the Taoiseach's office. They were realistic and they were not easily fooled by anybody about what was possible and not possible within the law. They had no intention of being taken up the mountain only to be led back down again. They were focused on trying to get a realistic package for themselves and their colleagues, who have spent a long time with the company and who have worked for many years. The Deputy knows full well that last week's offer was not a Government offer so he should not try to portray it as such.

To be fair to the trade union involved, Mandate, it is doing its best within limited circumstances to try to get some sort of a package from a company that has left, through the process where some resources could perhaps be freed up to make a contribution to the workers' situation. That is my understanding of the situation but I was not directly involved in that; nor was the Government.

I went to the picket line on St. Patrick's Street because the workers asked me to go. I did not go for a photograph. When I was there, the workers asked if they could take a photograph with their mobile phones and of course they could. The Deputy should not make comments of that sort in a derogatory way as he is passing by in his contribution. As I have said, my only focus is on the workers themselves. They have worked for this company for a long time and they have been badly let down. The Government, through its mechanisms, will fulfil its obligations in respect of statutory redundancy. As for the law, there are commitments in the programme for Government to make sure that legal provisions are made around collective redundancies and the liquidation of companies to protect effectively the rights of workers into the future.

That is the priority but that will not help in the current situation and with the challenges facing the workers in Debenhams. It is an issue that the Government is very concerned about, as is the plight of the workers. We intend to do anything we possibly can to help them in the aftermath of the closure of the stores in this country, within the law and the frameworks available to us.

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

The Deputy implied it.

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.

No, I did not.

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 let them down very badly, as indeed they have.

KPMG has stated it cannot make the offer the workers wish unless it is instructed to do so by the Government. The workers will not let the stock leave the shops and this dispute will not go away until that offer is made. The Taoiseach knows what he has to do. I ask him to do it now, please, and resolve this dispute.

The Deputy's assertion is untrue. I did not have sight of that offer.

How was it that the Taoiseach's backbenchers were telling people to engage? How did they know?

I am telling Deputy Barry the truth. Will he withdraw what he just said? I did not have sight of that offer before the workers.

I will not withdraw it.

The Deputy cannot be making assertions of that kind.

The Taoiseach told me that-----

I ask Deputy Barry to allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

What is happening, from Deputy Barry's perspective, and has happened from the beginning of the dispute, is that this is about the politicisation and exploitation of the issue to the best political advantage of the Deputy. I put it to him bluntly that that is what he is about. My focus is on what I can do practically for the workers.

He is insulting them.

I am not into some sort of ideological war.

The Taoiseach is insulting the workers.

There are two things we can do from this date. We will do whatever we can to put pressure on to get a deal, a respectable package, for the workers. We need to change the law as well to protect workers in future by protecting collective agreements. That has to happen. As I said, I had preliminary discussions with ICTU. They were not on the agenda. I had a general discussion with representatives of ICTU last week in the context of the social dialogue unit we are establishing in my Department. In the context of that discussion, we discussed Debenhams and how we could develop mechanisms in the future, and whether we could do something to assist Debenhams' workers. That is my only focus and the focus of the Government right now.

I thank the Taoiseach. The time is up.

The Taoiseach now has a package that will not now fly.