Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has demanded the intervention of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Irish Ferries dispute.
Mr Kenny said Mr Ahern should request that the head of the company be call to his office "to be given the message face-to-face that we do not want anything to happen which would damage the economy of this country, and that in this particular set of circumstances Irish Ferries are being very badly led".
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, who was taking Opposition leaders' questions in the Taoiseach's absence, said he could assure Mr Kenny that that message would be communicated.
"The Taoiseach has made his position very clear. From the very outset he has indicated that he expects respect for employment law and for Irish law to be applied here.
"The ordinary conduct of industrial relations depends on respects for the basic norms and for the institutions of the State, especially the Labour Court."
Mr Cowen said while Labour Court recommendations were not generally binding, they should be respected as proper resolutions of disputes.
"This is especially so in the case of the Irish Ferries dispute. The court has spelt out very carefully its views on fundamental aspects of negotiation and collective agreements. It upholds the basic principle that agreements should be honoured unless there are compelling reasons to vary them."
He said the Government's view was that the issues could be resolved. However the company's tactics had not helped.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte suggested that the dispute was a defining moment, not only in the economy but in society.
"Social partnership, which has been the cornerstone of progress for more than 20 years now, is being jettisoned when it suits the greedy requirements of one particular company."
The Government was seen to be all over the place, and the Taoiseach had thrown in the towel on the issue. He said Mr Ahern's excuse was about the right of establishment in the EU, adding that Mr Cowen was blatantly misusing that right which the Taoiseach had insisted that the State could not hinder.
This was standing maritime law on its head because we were party to the UN Convention of the Sea, and it was quite clear under Article 91 that every state should fix the conditions for the grant of its nationality for the registration of ships in its territory and the right to fly its flag. There must exist a genuine link between the ship and the state.
Mr Rabbitte said the Taoiseach and the Government were entitled to take action to ensure that Irish Ferries could not reflag in Cyprus or anywhere else, and seek at European level to enforce that article.
Mr Cowen said the Labour leader's interpretation was not the one available to the Government. Pending reflagging approval, Irish employment laws would be enforced, and safety laws applied to all vessels using Irish ports. However once the vessel was reflagged it was a matter of international law that the terms and conditions of the employed seafarers were to be decided exclusively by the flag-state.
"It is crystal clear that we cannot prevent a reflagging that occurs as an integral part of exercising a right of establishment in another member state.
"In other words, any member of the union has the right of establishment in any member state of the union. That is a fact, one established since the Treaty of Rome."
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said trade and commerce were seriously at risk. It was now time, late in the day as it was, for the Government to consider an Irish Ferries within State control.
