Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome this opportunity to address the House on the day when the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, published the Employment Permits Bill 2005. The Bill contains a variety of provisions designed to deal with concerns expressed about the protections available to immigrant workers from outside the European Union employed in Ireland.

Protections set out for workers under the provisions of all employment rights legislation are equally applicable to all workers, whether a person be Irish or a foreign national. For the avoidance of doubt, section 20 of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time) Work Act 2001 provides that all employee protection legislation on the Statute Book applies to workers posted to work in Ireland.

The employment rights information unit in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is active in supplying information on employment rights to employees. Last year, 150,000 inquiries were dealt with by this unit. Officials have given several talks on employment rights to a range of migrant worker groups. Information on employment rights is available in leaflet form from the Department and is also available on the Department's website.

In matters of investigation and enforcement the labour inspectorate of the Department makes no distinction between Irish and migrant workers whether they are from inside or outside the European Union as regards the provision of information and enforcement activity. With regard to the labour inspectorate, it is appropriate that since January of this year steps have been taken which mean the complement of Inspectors will have almost doubled from 17 officers to 31 once current recruitment activities are completed. I expect this to happen soon.

Apart from the increases in resources there is further significant activity on the employment rights front. Arising out of Sustaining Progress, work is under way to address issues identified in the report of the review group on the employment rights bodies and in the discussion document which focused on the mandate and resourcing of the labour inspectorate. A restatement or consolidation of employment rights legislation forms part of this agenda. This work will lead to the establishment of better streamlined procedures for complaint resolution for employees together with more effective investigation and enforcement to deal with the detection and, where appropriate, the prosecution of breaches found. All workers, including migrant workers, will benefit from these improvements.

These are the positive initiatives that are under way to improve the legislative environment in the context of employment rights and to address breaches of statutory regulations. While I understand this is not the situation in the case in question, there is provision for the protection of workers' entitlements where their employer has gone into liquidation or receivership. The insolvency payments scheme, which is administered by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, enables employees to claim, either through the liquidator or receiver, arrears of pay, holiday pay, pay in lieu of statutory notice and various other pay related entitlements that may be owed to them by their employer. The scheme operates under the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Act 1984, and payments are made from the social insurance fund. Where a payment has been made to an employee under the scheme, the Minister for Enterprise and Employment becomes a creditor against the employer in place of the employee.

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