Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My amendment No. 33 is included in this grouping. The purpose of my amendment is similar if not the same as the purpose of Deputies O'Reilly's and Murphy's amendment in that I want to see the creation of a new right for general permit holders to change their employment for any reason in lieu of the current relatively restrictive proposal in section 38 that allows a permit holder to change employment only if made redundant. I am proposing that a worker with a permit who loses or leaves a job can move to another job and all that is required is for the holder simply to notify the Minister and the Department of that. That would mean there would no requirement to make application for a new permit to move jobs. We know the argument in favour of that. It increases mobility and protects the worker from exploitation. It is too difficult and there are too many barriers in place at present - financial, administrative and otherwise - for people who wish to change employment. There is a huge power imbalance. Deputy Bruton is right that we should be moving beyond the stage of anything that might be described as indentured employment or bonded labour. We are way beyond that and any society that has any claim to be progressive should move away from that notion. Currently, the system insists that a permit holder can only change employer by applying for a new permit. There are money issues there, along with financial barriers, a fear of immigration status being lost and so on. I draw the attention of members to the situation in Spain as an example. There are no new applications required, no restrictions and people can move to any job. In a modern progressive economy, that is the direction in which we need to be going.