Sinn Féin in Conversation - Supporting workers through Covid-19 and beyond https://www.pscp.tv/w/cWSfgjEzOTU3NzV8MXluSk9wWW5lWXp4Uoq7nq1rF89upiLtBHk-TQo9v_CiZqBSV5HoIZ787pcu

John Douglas: "Debenhams announced that their Irish stores would close at a time when workers and unions could not engage. It was cynical. Many of these workers had 20/30 years' service. It was despicable."

David Cullinane: "Sinn Féin have been in contact with the company. We've seen this before with the likes of Clerys. Workers have been treated disgracefully."

John Douglas: "We have workers from the North working in businesses in the South. They pay their taxes here but have been let down and ignored by the government here. They are as entitled to the COVID-19 payments as their fellow workers from the South."

John Douglas: "There needs to be a general moratorium for debt repayments, from utilities, to loans, to rent. People are living from wage packet to wage packet and we need to keep people's heads above water and allow the economy to recover by them having money in their pocket."

John Douglas: "The government need to stand up to Debenhams and to stand up for workers. It's not okay for an English company to use a national crisis here to axe 2000 jobs at the drop of a hat."

John Douglas: "Successive neo-liberal Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments have worked in tandem with big business to drive down wages here and drive down trade union membership. That cannot continue."