Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 3:

In page 11, to delete line 24.

This group relates to seasonal employment permits. I do not believe there is a need for them. We have discussed this; the Minister of State will hardly be shocked to hear me say it. I do not believe there is a need for a seasonal work permit. There is not sufficient evidence to support the introduction of this type of permit. I am further concerned that we will massively increase the risk of exploitation of workers who will be employed under these permits. The introduction of a permit such as this further exposes workers who, we are all agreed and there is no dispute about it, constitute some of the most vulnerable in the labour market. The creation of seasonal work permits to address supposed difficulties in certain sectors, whether or not it is the intention, will facilitate bad employers in circumventing improving pay and conditions.

I talked to a very long-time union organiser who still organises workers. He said the reason trade unions and migrant rights' organisations, etc., are opposed to and concerned about these permits is the workers will be here exactly long enough to be exploited but not long enough to be organised, and will then be gone. These permits facilitate that. We all know and can take it as given that the vast majority of employers do not engage in disgusting, awful practices, but there are some who do. The facilitation of these types of employers through the creation of seasonal work permits would be a grave mistake. What these workers need is a living wage, decent pay and conditions, and a right to collective bargaining. Unless and until that exists for all workers, the creation of any kind of seasonal work permit will be very problematic.

We know that between 2015 and 2021 the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, worked on detecting breaches of employment law. It found such breaches in more than one third of its investigations. In 35.9% of the cases it investigated, the WRC found breaches by employers for non-payment of the minimum wage, for employment permit breaches, for breaches of legislation on the protection of young persons, and for breaches of annual leave and public holidays entitlements, etc. Sectors such as food, drink, retail, wholesale, and hair and beauty are over-represented in these instances. They cannot deny that. We can see the evidence speaks for itself. The Minister of State and I have long debated whether the WRC should be better funded. If there was more funding for the WRC, we would uncover more of this. All the evidence suggests that where the WRC goes in, it does its work, and is very diligent and very good at it, but it finds breaches.

It is not just Sinn Féin that is concerned about these seasonal work permits. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, is also concerned, as are the Migrant Rights Centre, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and this committee, which expressed a concern in our report on this. We are not a lone voice on this matter. I argue that the Government, in proposing this, is somewhat of a lone voice. The opinion of many people who have very real experience of dealing with the labour market indicates they are vehemently opposed to the introduction of seasonal work permits.