Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has written to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern seeking an explanation for the Government decision to give Irish Ferries €4.3 million towards the cost of statutory redundancy payments to Irish staff who were then replaced by Eastern European workers on lower pay.
The money was in the form of a rebate paid under the social insurance scheme which allows firms to claim back 60 per cent of the cost of statutory redundancy.
In his letter, Mr Rabbitte said his reaction to the decision was "one of utter disbelief". He also accused Mr Ahern of delaying a decision on the rebate for 12 months "in the hope that the public controversy of that time would abate" and questioned the claim by the Minister for Enterprise that there was no ministerial or departmental discretion over the rebate.
Mr Rabbitte said the jobs were not being eliminated, and it was questionable whether the redundancy payments Act applied in this case. The decision to grant the rebate was setting a precedent, he said. "If this precedent is to be permitted, I do not see why it would not be relied on by other employers so as to bring about an 'Irish Ferries on land' situation," he wrote. "It seems to me you owe the Irish workforce some explanation as to how this decision came to be made and some indication as to whether it has any such significance as a precedent."
He added that last year the Minister of State for Enterprise, Tony Killeen, told the Dáil that "redundancies as proposed by the company may not fall within the definition of the legislation".
Mr Rabbitte added: "At some stage in this process, the Government or its Attorney General or both were persuaded to change their mind on this question. I believe the taxpayers of this country are entitled to be told why."