If ever there was a demonstration that there is one law in this country for the rich, the powerful and big business and another for working people, we saw that demonstrated in the Four Courts yesterday, where KPMG, the liquidators of Debenhams, sought and got an injunction against Debenhams workers. This means workers who have been treated in the most despicable fashion by their employer and are engaged in an official dispute to fight for justice and fair redundancy now face – these workers include constituents of the Taoiseach - the real prospect of finding themselves imprisoned if they continue in their entirely peaceful and legitimate fight for justice. It is outrageous that should be the case. Workers face the prospect of jail and the wrath of the law; meanwhile, Debenhams, which has treated these workers disgracefully and has manipulated if not broken company law in their efforts to hide assets from these workers, and KPMG, which makes a fortune in contracts from this State and will no doubt be handsomely paid for their role in this process, face no interrogation for their role in this situation. It is appalling. This company tactically unloaded €200 million of debt onto Debenhams Ireland, which had nothing to do with that firm.

This is the company that stood up in the courts and gave evidence in April to a court of law that the online business worth €30 million was part of Debenhams Ireland, which every worker knows because the sales of that went through each individual store of Debenhams Ireland, and a few days later then said it was not part of Debenhams Ireland even though there is court testimony to that effect. What is Revenue doing about that? What is KPMG doing about that disgraceful treatment?

Deputy-----

Stop the clock please. Do not waste my time. Stop the clock.

Please do not get involved in debating, discussing or criticising what has gone on in the courts. You are here a long time now and you know the precepts of separation of powers. Please do not go there.

What I am talking about is the failure of the Government to address the situation whereby Debenhams can abuse workers like this. KPMG has very serious questions to answer about the way it is handling the liquidation process, given that there is court evidence from Debenhams that the online business was part of Debenhams Ireland's operation. Every worker knows it to be the case, but nobody is doing anything about it.

Kieran Wallace told workers at meetings that the State could step aside as a creditor and allocate supplementary cash. It made a €1 million offer. If there is nothing the Government or KPMG can do, how come it offered €1 million? If it can offer €1 million it can offer €10 million. I and the workers do not accept that there is nothing the Government can do.

Will the Taoiseach say publicly that no worker, truck driver or anybody else in this country should break the picket of the Debenhams workers? Will he convene a meeting of KPMG and the shop stewards, with a presence from the Government, to discuss how we can get a fair deal for these workers? Will he instruct KPMG to allocate extra cash? If it can offer €1 million, even though it withdrew the offer, why can it not offer more?

I am interested in a resolution of this and I am not going to pretend that there will be an optimal solution. I do not want to take people up a hill and bring them back down again empty-handed. My assessment of this is that of course the workers have been treated very badly by the company. The company has gone into liquidation. It is in difficulty in the UK. As the Deputy knows, the UK does not want to know about it. Mandate and ICTU have worked on this and I intend to engage further with them.

I have asked my officials to review the entirety of this to see what can be done practically. It is all very well to articulate the issue as well and as eloquently as the Deputy does, but we all have to work within the law. The Government cannot instruct the liquidator or the High Court process. The Deputy knows that. There are legal frameworks we have to navigate. That is the reality. Every politician would love to say to everybody that they would love to resolve an issue and provide funding. Unfortunately, it is never that simple. Others may pretend and articulate that it is, but it never is.

I admire and salute the strength, courage and tenacity of the workers. The Government provides statutory redundancy and so on. We are now entering into new territory. Where I see things evolving is that employers can renege on their obligations in the future if the Government is always there to bail them out. That is a potential solution. Irrespective of companies reneging on or failing to honour their collective agreements, the Government ends up being the bank of last resort of those collective agreements.

The legislation should be changed in order to put workers on a par with others. In other words, where a legal collective agreement has been entered into workers should be on the same level as every other creditor in terms of getting their entitlements and obligations. That is something that will need to be changed. Whether such a change, even if introduced in the short term, can be applied retrospectively is an issue.

In the meantime, my focus, notwithstanding yesterday's court decision, is to see whether we can create some space to assess whether something can be done to alleviate the situation for the workers concerned. As I said, I have asked my officials to look at this issue. Whatever we can do legally and in a sensible way we will do. I have remained in contact with the workers on this.

It is long past time for action on this. We now face the prospect that ordinary working people - most of whom are women - who are not criminals and should not be criminalised, and have worked long, hard and loyally for Debenhams and have been treated despicably, could end up in jail. The Taoiseach needs to act urgently to prevent that. He should be under no illusion. They will hold this Government and previous Governments responsible for their plight because the failure to address all of these issues after Clerys is the reason they are in this mess now. The Government better take that responsibility.

Can the Government instruct the liquidators? Kieran Wallace said that unless the State voluntarily instructs the liquidators to allocate supplementary cash to the workers nothing can be done. The State can do it. The proof of that is that it offered them €1 million, a pathetic figure. Where did it come from? How could it offer the workers €1 million? If it can offer them €1 million it can offer them the €10 million necessary to give them the two plus two, and then the Government and Revenue can chase the company for the assets they are clearly hiding using accounting tricks. The Government can do it.

I ask the Taoiseach to join me publicly in saying that no truck driver or worker should cross the pickets of Debenhams. Then they will not have to defy an injunction. If workers do not cross the pickets, there is no injunction defiance. Will the Taoiseach convene a meeting with the shop stewards, unions, KPMG and the Government to discuss a resolution?

Mandate is the union that has been working on this. The Government will continue to engage with it-----

Not the shop stewards.

I presume the shop stewards are part of the union. I do not know why the Deputy is making that demarcation. I will also engage with ICTU because this has wider implications.

The Deputy is not correct in saying that because €1 million emerged from the process that €10 million can emerge from it.

Where did the €1 million come from?

That is wonderfully said, but it is not entirely grounded in reality. Certain people, the Deputy included, have created the idea that this can be solved easily knowing full well that it cannot, unfortunately. There has been much interaction on how to get this resolved. The Government does not instruct liquidators and is not in a position to do so, despite what the Deputy said consistently in his contribution.

He did not-----

Please, Deputy Boyd Barrett.

The Government cannot instruct.

Taoiseach, the time is up.