Doslovný záznam ze zasedání

Čtvrtek, 13. července 2023 - Štrasburk

11.3. Stav Unie malých a středních podniků (RC-B9-0346/2023, B9-0346/2023, B9-0347/2023, B9-0348/2023, B9-0349/2023)

Mündliche Stimmerklärungen

  Clare Daly (The Left). – Mr President, I am glad we were discussing this SME resolution, but I abstained on it because we are not doing enough. The level playing field is not level enough. We have big business favoured every time – companies like Iceland, where presently, in Ireland, 400 Irish workers have been left with unpaid wages, holiday pay, redundancy pay, everything. Some of them are down thousands of euros against the backdrop of the biggest cost of living crisis in decades – no idea how they’re going to pay their bills or keep a roof over their head.

And yet Iceland, as their employer, has conducted a tactical insolvency, yet another one. We’ve been told that this wouldn’t happen again, but it’s happening again and again. Our government says, ‘go to the industrial relations machinery of the state’. That’s an insult when they’ve have to wait two and three years. The moneylenders, the landlords, the bankers don’t wait for two and three years. They need action; they need it now. We need good employers and a level playing field.