LIMERICK TD Maurice Quinlivan has accused the Labour Party of “gross hypocrisy” after they put a motion before the Dáil calling for greater protection of workers.
The Sinn Féin spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation said he welcomed any initiative to protect workers’ rights, before lambasting Labour for failing to defend these rights while in government.
The Labour Party motion called on the Dáil to “stand up for working people and ensure employees secure a fair share of national prosperity”.
“The hypocrisy at the core of this motion is staggering,” Deputy Quinlivan declared.
“These are fine sentiments but this motion is sponsored by a party who was a partner in the most right-wing government since the foundation of the State. In government, Labour and Fine Gael went after the incomes of ordinary working people and waged war on the living standards of the most vulnerable,” he added.
The policy of austerity stretched beyond people’s pay packets with “funding for key public services slashed and the State’s industrial relations architecture dismantled”.
“In government Labour introduced policies that increased levels of deprivation, and in-work poverty. These policies were bad for workers, bad for the economy, and bad for society”, Deputy Quinlivan claimed.
However, Limerick Labour Party TD Jan O’Sullivan hit back at the Sinn Féin politician over his comments.
“Maurice Quinlivan is simply wrong. He should get over his obsession with Labour and get on with representing his own party which presides in government in Northern Ireland over one of the highest per capita rates of zero hours contracts in the world,” she stated.
“Labour in Government did not slash wages as he claims, in fact we increased the minimum wage twice, legislated for collective bargaining rights, restored Registered Employment Agreements, established the Low Pay Commission, signed two new Employment Regulation Orders to benefit low-paid workers in contract cleaning and security work. One of the first things we did when we came in to Government was to reverse the cut of €1 per hour which the previous Government had introduced.”
In her view, Labour’s most important achievement for workers was to reduce unemployment from over 15 per cent when they came into Government to below eight per cent.
“Sinn Féin need to move away from tired slogans and bashing other left-wing parties and do something positive to improve people’s lives,” she concluded.
by Alan Jacques
