'Can Leo not do his maths?' Protesting Debenhams staff hit back at Tánaiste

Michelle Coughlan-Price leads former Debenhams workers and supporters on a rally outside the St Patrick's St store, Cork City as the sit-in protest continues inside the store. File picture: Larry Cummins

Former Debenhams workers have hit back at Tánaiste Leo Varadkar after he suggested that the collapsed retailer had no assets to fund its redundancy payments to staff.

“Can Leo Varadkar not do his maths, or does he think we’re stupid?” asked Madeline Whelan as she led a large protest outside the Patrick Street store in Cork where she worked for 30 years.

She said: “Debenhams UK has €95m in the bank. We know that the stock in the Patrick St store alone is valued at €4.9m.

“And stock in all 11 Debenhams Irish stores is valued — very conservatively — at €25m.

“But it would cost €10m to pay us all the previously agreed redundancy package of two weeks pay per year of service. So the money is there."

Mr Vardkar, who is both Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, told RTÉ on Wednesday that Debenhams is genuinely insolvent and lacks the funds to pay staff their redundancy. 

He said that it differs in this way from the controversial collapse of department store Cleary's, which owned valuable Dublin real estate before it was liquidated in 2015. 

And while he believed that former Debenhams staff have been treated "very badly", the company had entered a genuine — not a tactical — insolvency, he said. 

Former workers could therefore only expect to receive statutory redundancy, their unpaid wages and their unpaid annual leave, he said.

However, Madeline disagreed, saying that the Debenhams situation "is almost exactly like Clearys".

“Debenhams has assets too. This is a 100% tactical liquidation," Madeline said. "The company is split into two separate entities with assets funnelled out of Ireland and into the UK.

“When we met Leo in the Dáil about five weeks ago he promised us 'a pot of money' but there’s no mention of that pot now.

“We’ve spent 153 days on the picket. I never thought it would last this long. Now there are only 107 days left before Christmas. We’ve had discussions about who could be here at the picket on Christmas Day. It’s getting frightening.” 

Former Debenhams workers and supporters outside the St Patrick's St store. File picture: Larry Cummins

Determined chants of “your worker's rights are under attack, stand up and fight back!” were belted out by approximately 40 socially distanced Debenhams protesters and their supporters outside the Patrick St store Wednesday.

Toddlers sat transfixed by the scene in buggies, politicians held placards aloft in support, and passers-by stopped to take leaflets from masked youths who hovered by the PA system.

As strains of "K-P-M-G, give us our redundancy" drifted around the block, inside the shuttered store, eight protesters were on their second day of a sit-in.

Most of them slept on the floor last night during the occupation, which is pushing for new talks to resolve the dispute which has raged since April.

Speaking from inside the store, protester Valerie Conlon, said: “Last week, Debenhams UK said they had more money than they thought — with €95m rather than the €60m in the bank.

“So when you hear our Tániaste saying that the company has no assets, it’s very disheartening.

“Leo Varadkar said from the beginning that he’d do what he could to help us but now he seems to be throwing in the towel."

Sinn Féin councillor Mick Nugent who attended the protest said that the Debenhams liquidator KPMG “seem to be digging their heels in”.

“It remains to be seen whether KPMG will enter into fresh talks and a new deal," he said. 

“It seems that the Taoiseach and government TDs would only give tea and sympathy to the workers, now they’ve completely gone to ground on the issue.”