Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am heartened to hear that the Deputy not only thinks this is a nice committee to come to but, crucially, I am heartened to hear her broad support and welcome for this SEO. That is the most important thing to put on record. We have had a couple of discussions in the Chamber so far on issues similar to this, be they through oral parliamentary questions or Topical Issues, and I apologise for my absence this morning. I was in a meeting with the trade union movement, as the Deputy can appreciate. It was a statutory meeting that I was required to attend. We will continue to have those discussions and enforcement is key to this.

I fundamentally believe this SEO is a good thing for the construction sector. It is good for workers and employers and it is vital to the continuing progress of our economy. The Deputy correctly mentioned the Government's intention to encourage people from outside the European Union to come to Ireland and there is a good reason for that. We are attracting key talent to fill clear gaps. We make it clear that if any work permits are being granted for people coming from outside the European Union there will be strict responsibilities on the employer to protect those coming from outside because, sadly, in our past we have unfortunately seen too many cases where there has been abuse, be it in accommodation, pay or conditions. We will always work, be it with the Migrants Rights Centre Ireland or other bodies, to make sure workers are protected in the construction sector and beyond if they are coming from overseas. Last year saw 30,000 people come from within the European Union to Ireland and more than 40,000 people came from without the European Union to work here, which is considerably more than the number who left the country for work reasons.

On this particular matter, the WRC and the role of inspectors of the WRC, the mechanisms for enforcements under this SEO are quite clear. They are the same as the 2019 mechanisms and the Deputy will agree that those mechanisms are solid and when they work, they work well for employee and employer alike. I take on board the Deputy's concerns on resourcing for the WRC in terms of providing adequate numbers of inspectors. We would have had a meeting with Connect Trade Union prior to this, in parallel on the issue of bogus self-employment, which the Deputy raised prior to my time coming into office. We discussed the issues where that occurs and we also discussed how it is a system that certain workers choose to pursue as they feel they do better out of being self-employed. Those workers have the right to identify as self-employed so that status should not necessarily be seen as bogus. It is clear that we need to use those mechanisms but we need to ensure it is done in a balanced way that protects workers. It is crucial that within this SEO we will meet the responsibilities in terms of need for enforcement and in resources in terms of inspectors for the WRC, and I undertake to do that.

I will go slightly off script on two areas the Deputy brought up, including the Iceland workers. I appreciate the correspondence I have received from the Deputy on that and I know she raised it with the Taoiseach during Questions on Promised Legislation, after which I got a swift phone call from him asking me to get onto this. I have already done so and my Department and officials have already engaged in this area. We will bring the Deputy into that process when it is appropriate because we need to get the full facts. I know there was a protest held by some of the Deputy's colleagues outside a specific store in Cork a number of weeks ago, which was brought to our attention as well. We are well aware of these issues and we want to make sure that workers in every store, regardless of the sector, are protected and that their rights are enshrined and maintained.

On the security sector, all of these things are done on a voluntary basis and people always have a right to go to the courts. We have to recognise the rights of employee and employer alike but where the State believes it is fundamentally in the right it will challenge any such injunctions or anything else, which we have done in that situation.