Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a question for the Minister on the WRC. In spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic, the commission carried out 7,687 inspections in 2020 and recovered almost €1.7 million in unpaid wages for workers. Data revealed by a parliamentary question outlined how, since 2011, the WRC has recovered almost €18 million in withheld wages. Further parliamentary question data revealed the scale and number of breaches of employment law detected by WRC investigations since 2015. In those six years, it has detected breaches in employment law in more than one third of investigations. A total of 35.9% of the cases investigated found breaches by employers regarding non-payment of the minimum wage, employment permits, protection of young persons, annual leave and public holidays and unpaid wages, among other areas. That is a stark figure. I ask the Minister and Department to put a focus on protecting workers and tackling rogue employers, who negatively impact on the vast majority of good employers, for the year ahead. I thank him.