Mr. Liam Berney:

I agree with the Senator's comments. Congress recently published a report on the meat processing sector, which deals with some of these issues. I can make it available to members of the committee if they do not have it. It highlights some of the practices in the meat sector, which, unfortunately, are not great. Senator Garvey talked about meat processing being singled out at this meeting. Meat processing is not the only sector where there are problems; there are particular problems in agriculture and horticulture.

There are significant problems for people who come to this country on work permits. The issue around the short-term work permit is hugely problematic for colleagues in Congress. It would be, in our view, systematically abused because if somebody comes here on a work permit for two months and they find out after three weeks they are being paid less than the minimum wage, it will take them at least six to eight weeks to have that processed through the WRC. By that time, they will have gone back to their home country. Why would an employer not do that, if it was minded to? The points made by Senators Sherlock and Gavan and Deputies O'Reilly and Bruton on the importance of enforcement are a very significant message that should come out of this meeting.