Ms Gráinne O'Toole:

I thank Deputy Tóibín for his comments and Deputy Calleary for his support as well. When the Younis case happened and exposed the loophole, we had a number of cases of exploitation. We are dealing with 30 at the moment where workers cannot go forward to the Labour Court to reclaim their wages but we have been in contact with solicitors around the country and we estimate at least 60 cases are problematic. With regard to the overall extent of exploitation, we know, for example, that there are difficulties in the au pair sector. We estimate 25,000 au pairs are placed every year in Ireland. We looked at this over the past year and analysed it because there is no such thing as an au pair in the way we understood it in the past. Society has changed and migration is a reality. Everybody should come under the protection of our employment law and people need to be aware that if they employ someone in their private home, they have to uphold employment rights and standards. There is no cheap option. We recognise the situation that has occurred is linked to a lack of affordable child care and pressure on families.

We are calling on NERA and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to develop a proactive programme to inform employers and the public that they need to address these issues. Work also needs to be done with au pairs to inform them of their rights. We want the National Employment Rights Authority to take a lead on this and to do more. We would like an explicit statement from the Department to dispel any myths about au pairs being some kind of sub-category of worker. The reality is that if one has someone employed in one's home they are an employee, and there is no way around that.

We map the extent of exploitation. Au pairs are a big issue. We are taking in cases all the time. We have a relationship with the National Employment Rights Authority, which takes referrals from us. We have seen about 20 cases this year, but we know from contact with NERA and the number of inquiries we are getting that the level of exploitation is high. We also have social media contacts with more than 600 au pairs, who report problems to us. However, we have very few resources to do this kind of work. As everyone can appreciate, our resources have been cut to a minimum, so our capacity to outreach is limited. That is why we hope that NERA and the Department will take up the mantle, inform the public and help au pairs secure their rights.

As we know, the restaurant work sector is usually problematic. That is ongoing; we are seeing cases coming through our centre all the time. There is no evidence yet to suggest that the problems have decreased in any way. Car washes, too, are becoming problematic in certain areas. Care is also a big issue because it is growth area. We anticipate that it will be a problematic area unless we review the categories and look at how people can recruit legally where there is a demand in the economy. We believe that domestic work will be an ongoing issue because of the unaffordable child care system. Rather than running away from it and saying that we should make domestic work ineligible because there are areas of exploitation of vulnerable workers, we need to face it, because more people are looking for care in their homes, both older and adult care and child care. It is a reality that we will have to face in a strategic and planned-out way.