Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would love to give Ms Ward a suggestion and I welcome the opportunity to do so. Why not ensure, before the Department issues work permits, that there is a collective bargaining agreement in place between the employer and the trade union of the workers' choice? That is a simple way to ensure there is a third party to protect the workers. To be frank, and we have gone through the numbers, the WRC does not have the inspectors or the time and resources to do this. I can tell Ms Ward from first-hand experience that it is not happening. Why not ensure, as a bottom line, that there is a collective bargaining agreement in place? That is something an employer can easily put in place to ensure protection for workers.

One of the big features of this system is employment agencies using work permits. Ms Ward said she had read the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland report published last year, and I am delighted she has. The report stated that an emerging feature of employment in Ireland was EU workers being employed through agencies rather than directly by meat processing companies. The companies, it continued, were able to deflect responsibility on to agencies and vice versa. While this is not directly related to work permits, it describes a work space that is highly different from the traditional way that Ms Ward and I have experienced work, for the most part.

Ms Ward will be relieved to hear this is my final question. She will acknowledge that these are essential workers. Why is it okay for her Department to sanction, for these essential workers who are keeping our country going, a rate of pay as low as €22,000 a year? I find that offensive. Surely to God, after all we have come through on Covid, everyone, regardless of party politics, and everyone in Ms Ward's Department would acknowledge that the figure of €22,000 is disgracefully low. At the very least, do these workers not deserve a living wage? Is it not within the scope of the broader Department to ensure that this happens as a recommendation?