Harney responsible for Gama scandal, says Higgins

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney was yesterday accused of failing to protect migrant workers at Turkish construction giant Gama despite complaints against the firm during her time as Enterprise Minister.

Challenging the Tánaiste's inaction in the Dáil yesterday, Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins said she had to carry "full personal responsibility" for the unfolding labour scandal.

The challenge came after it emerged that a rival company had made allegations of underpayment at Gama in 2003.

Speaking yesterday, Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU) assistant general secretary Brendan O'Sullivan confirmed he informed Ms Harney of underpayments at Gama in September 2003.

"I told Mary Harney we had interviewed Turkish workers ... and that they had told us they were paid way, way below the industry rate and indeed way below the national minimum wage," he said.

Ms Harney denied she had not investigated the matter, publishing a 2003 briefing by a Department of Enterprise official which had found "no substance" to the complaints.

The Tánaiste also said Gama's treatment of workers was a disgrace. "I regret very much the circumstances that are emerging in relation to this case. I would not stand over it. It is a disgrace," she said.

However, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte dismissed yesterday's two-page document as falling far short of an acceptable investigation.

"It seems to me that she was ideologically not minded to investigate serious complaints and the report she has now put into the public domain bears that out," he said.

With two Government Labour inspectors now questioning officials in Dutch-based Finansbank, Mr Higgins yesterday wrote to the Dutch Central Bank seeking an investigation into how up to €40 million in workers' money was deposited in the Netherlands.

Also yesterday, Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa raised the matter in the European Parliament, calling for the European Commission to investigate allegations of Gama "illegally shifting money that belongs to workers out of Ireland to a bank in the Netherlands".