Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister can also take a case if there has been a breach of the law. This is where NERA comes into the equation. When a complaint is made, there is a robust investigation of potential exploitation with clear outcomes.

On the compensation issue, the compensation provided for is the national minimum wage or other mandatory statutory rates of pay for the job. We determined this when dealing with Deputy Tóibín's amendments. This is provided for in law so that there is no ambiguity. The complex standards of proof arise where a court is determining how much compensation should be paid. It is necessary to remove that ambiguity. In terms of the specific case mentioned, the question that arises is whether there is a legal contract of employment. What we are doing is moving to a situation whereby a person who makes a complaint and has acted reasonably in terms of his or employment conditions and had a reasonable expectation of having a contract will also be covered by this legislation. We are putting a belt and braces approach around the existing legislation such that there is a comfort for anybody who finds themselves in an exploitative situation that they can come forward and make a complaint and that there is a corpus of law that does not put a prohibitive cost on them in so doing because there is a statutory body, namely, NERA, that exists to err on their side where exploitation occurs.