Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

The treatment of Gama workers represented one of the most shameful episodes of the systematic exploitation of workers in the history of the State. The failure to put in place measures to enforce our labour laws to prevent such outrageous exploitation represents a shocking failure of the Minister and former Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputies Harney and Martin. The treatment by Gama of its workers was, simply, shameful. That Gama has been allowed to run rings around the institutions of the State has exacerbated the entire matter.

A company at the centre of an alleged worker exploitation scandal has been granted an exemption from paying social insurance for more than 1,400 employees for three years. Gama received three quarters of all PRSI exemptions granted over the past three years. Of approximately 1,900 exemptions granted, Gama received more than 1,400. The Minister said a random selection process applied to checks of the exemptions. Irish employers must look askance at such provisions as they are subject, rightly, to detailed examination. What efforts has the Department of Social and Family Affairs made to confirm that social insurance payments were being made in Turkey? Will we ever know the value of these important exemptions? Do we know what PRSI would have been payable had exemption certificates not been granted?

It appears the Exchequer may have lost many tens of millions of euro in PAYE and PRSI deductions in respect of Gama's employees. Many Irish firms which must take on direct employees on a sub-contracting basis are at a severe competitive disadvantage to an employer which, like Gama, can, in effect, opt out of the Irish PAYE and PRSI systems. Is the Minister concerned? When can the House expect the legislation framework which underpins the exemptions to be updated to ensure that a scandal like the one which has been brought to the fore by my colleague, Deputy Joe Higgins, for which he is to be complimented, and pursued by my party leader, Deputy Rabbitte, will not happen in the State in future? It is an indictment of us all that these events took place.

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