Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is above and beyond that. We are talking about human beings and the reported conditions in which they working, or trying to work. We must invite all the stakeholders to appear before the committee as soon as possible. As Senator Reilly said, perhaps the witnesses could suggest solutions that they think might be applicable. Quick solutions that could begin to alleviate the problem immediately would be necessary. There is a responsibility on the committee now. Speaking for myself, there is a responsibility on me, now that I have been made aware of this. I was unaware of it before this meeting. Everything we can do should be done on this. As mentioned earlier, ten or 15 years hence there could be an inquiry into this. As responsible representatives of the people in our constituencies and of the State, it is incumbent on us to scrutinise this now and arrive at solutions.

This is probably a conversation for another day, but I would be interested in receiving statistics on the industry, how many people are employed, how many are undocumented, how many are documented, whether they believe they are being exploited, reports of exploitation and so forth. For the present, however, we should invite the other stakeholders to appear before the committee. We should be very concise in our approach. As was mentioned, we should do what we have the power to do. Outside of that, even if it is important, if we do not have the power to do anything about it, we should leave it to one side. We should prioritise what we can do in order that we can get something done about this as quickly as possible. If the witnesses can put forward any solutions and we could push them through, I would fully support that.