Ms Gráinne O'Toole:

We believe the independence of the commission is important. I refer to how the Human Rights and Equality Commission has an independent function with a direct relationship with the Oireachtas and a budget line. It is able to conduct inquiries and undertake research. I hope the low pay commission will be an independent body which will not be over-influenced by sectoral interests. It will be allocated a budget and I hope it will be protected by the legislation. We will look at that aspect and come back with suggestions.

The Human Rights and Equality Commission was one model at which we were looking when we made that comment and that is vitally important for us.

As for not being able to pay wages to a decent level, I note we still see compliance issues. We see undocumented workers being employed for less than the minimum wage and see people being employed who still do not have contracts of employment and still are not getting sufficient hours to have a decent standard of living for them and for their families. We still see problematic sectors that we would like to see addressed and have concerns in this regard. We also have concerns about the way in which inspections are being conducted, particularly with regard to migrants, and we worry about ethnic profiling. For example, we have had a number of reports in recent years of inspectors searching workplaces for the first time with immigration police and the first question they are asking workers is what is their immigration status. This then creates an atmosphere of fear without finding out what is the exploitation. We have raised this issue many times and it still has not been addressed. We seek guidelines for where labour inspectors carry out inspections with An Garda Síochána on where it is necessary and whether it is necessary. There should be guidance on that because it is not working, which is a shame because the National Employment Rights Authority is a body that always has promoted itself as being there to advise workers.