I raise an issue with the Taoiseach that has been raised numerous times in the Chamber in relation to Debenhams workers who have been on strike for over 200 days. It is becoming one of the longest strikes in Irish labour history. My colleague, Deputy Boyd Barrett, raised this issue with the Taoiseach last week and the Taoiseach acknowledged that the talks in the WRC did not deliver a solution. The Taoiseach said something has to be done. Regardless of political affiliation, I think we all agree that something has to be done because this cannot go on. What the workers are looking for is very just: a fair redundancy. That is the cornerstone of this fight. Many TDs, of all political affiliations, have visited the picket line and the workers want to see a solution. They want to see a meaningful settlement to which they are entitled. Some of the workers worked for the company for decades.

They feel as though they have been robbed by their employer and they feel let down by the State. This should never have happened. If we look back at what happened in Clerys, the Government should have implemented the Duffy Cahill report and this should never have happened.

A solution can be found at this late stage. This could go on indefinitely and we want to see a settlement by the Government. The Taoiseach can intervene personally. Sometimes the last people to get paid as creditors are the workers themselves. They are the people who made all of that money in the first place so it is a terrible injustice. The Government can waive the fees that are owed to the State, which could accumulate up to €20 million. To sort out the strike would cost between €12 million and €14 million. The Government has the power to waive these fees with regard to final settlements. The strike has to end, and it will end, but it has to end with workers feeling they have not been robbed. That is very important. They should not be robbed and they feel they have to have a settlement. This could go on forever. It is in the Taoiseach's power to intervene in this personally and end the strike as soon as possible.

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue of the Debenhams workers. It is very difficult and unsatisfactory from the workers' perspective that it has dragged on for so long and they have not received their redundancy entitlements as per the collective agreement they entered into with their employer. The Government will, of course, honour the statutory redundancy but that is not the issue at stake. The recent exploratory talks at the Workplace Relations Commission ended without agreement. The Ministers of State, Deputies English and Troy, jointly chaired a forum with the social partners on 4 November to discuss the legislative provisions that deal with redundancy and insolvency from a company law and employment law perspective. I am already on the record of the House saying we need to change the legislative situation, particularly in terms of liquidations and the parity and status given to collective agreements. That in itself may not be of much use to the workers here and now in the current situation.

I am not quite clear regarding what the Deputy said about the Government waiving fees but I take it he might be referring to State agencies or arms of the State that stand to get something from the liquidation, such as Revenue or the Department of Social Protection. The challenge facing the Government in situations such as this is the creation of a precedent for other situations. We do not want a situation emerging whereby the Government on an ongoing basis picks up the tab for rogue employers or, indeed, for employers who never honour their commitments irrespective. The legislative framework is fairly clear in this regard. That said, we have not stopped looking at ways of seeing whether we can be of some assistance here, notwithstanding the legal constraints. A liquidation takes place within a legal framework and it is not that simple or easy for the Government to just waive the legal issues to one side and intervene in a manner that could ultimately create a precedent that would allow other employers to get off the hook from their obligations. I do not think anybody in the House wants that either. We are supportive of the best outcome possible for the workers but the issue is trying to get the mechanism to secure that. That has proved very thorny and very difficult to get sorted.

I do not doubt the Taoiseach's bona fides in trying to settle this outstanding strike. The State should step aside as a creditor because otherwise the workers will not get the redundancy they are looking for. It is really important that something concrete happens. We can talk until the cows come home and have all of the platitudes we want but this is about will.

It is like everything in life: if the will is there, things can be settled. Things are not as complicated as they are made out to be. The Taoiseach and the Government have the power to intervene on this occasion, because the previous Government made a mess of the situation where workers were being screwed by their big employer. Of course, there are rogue employers but there are some good employers as well and some very good workers. Those workers have been out for over seven months, rain, shine and everything, including Covid-19, and they still have that amazing solidarity to stay the course. They deserve it. They deserve two extra weeks with their statutory redundancy, and that is the least they deserve.

What the Deputy is saying, essentially, is that whatever is due to the various Government Departments, to Revenue or in terms of social protection should be waived, if I understand him correctly. That creates a very significant potential incentivisation for others in the future to welch on their obligations to workers, knowing the State will pick up the tab. Essentially, that means creating a new statutory redundancy scheme in an ad hoc way and simply saying the State will pick up the tab anyway, which would then incentivise employers to prioritise other issues for themselves and other creditors. I am not sure that is the simple or easy way out of this either.

That said, I am again going to bring all parties from the Government side to meet on this to see if we can develop mechanisms to try to get this resolved. The workers have been out for a long, long time and it has been very difficult for them. They have been treated shabbily. I will see what we can do in this regard.