Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the provisions of the Employment Permits Bill 2005 as they are long overdue. While many of the provisions are welcome, the Fine Gael view is that the Bill does not go far enough.

The Bill and the publicity it has received is totally misleading. Headlines such as "Immigrant workers to get work permits" are misleading. The reality is they will get a copy of the work permit which the employer has received, which is a long way from a situation where the migrant worker has the right to apply for his or her own permit.

The issue here is the ability to transfer from one employer to another but, to a large extent, the employer is still in control. This must be understood in the context of non-English speaking immigrant workers in a strange country where the customs and institutions are an unknown quantity. Even if their rights are clearly spelled out to them in their native language, if they leave the employer who holds their permit, their lack of understanding of the system and the lack of a complaints or appeal structure will ensure that they are afraid to exercise those rights. Unscrupulous employers will continue to abuse migrant workers, even if we have ten times the current number of inspectors. Many migrant workers, even though they are being grossly exploited by our standards, prefer not to rock the boat because no matter how badly paid or treated they are, they will still consider it better than being deported from this country.

Work permits are issued on a one-year basis only and it is the employer who must apply for a renewal. We have all heard of migrant workers being told by their employers that an application for renewal had been made, only to discover some months later that this was not the case. Then the workers had to either work illegally in this country or return home.

If the Minister insists on continuing to tie the permit to employers, then he must put some obligations on them to formally notify immigrant workers, at least three months before the expiry of the permit, of their intentions regarding the application for renewal. There should be an obligation on employers to honour a commitment made in writing on their intention to apply for another permit. If employers fail to honour this commitment, they should be forced to pay compensation.

One of the flaws of the Bill before us is that it is not clear what penalties will be imposed on employers if they do not comply with the regulations. We cannot have a situation where, in the last few days of his or her first year here, the immigrant worker suddenly discovers that the employer has not re-applied for a permit. Most migrant workers have arrived from poorer countries and many of them send much of their earnings home to support their families. Therefore, it is not acceptable that unscrupulous employers could leave them high and dry, without any notice. In such circumstances, it is absolutely essential that the employer be held responsible.

If the permits remain in the control of the employer then this Bill must impose stringent obligations and penalties for failure to honour obligations. When we, as a country, make efforts to improve the lot of our undocumented citizens in the United States or Australia, we would not and, indeed, should not accept this type of indentured work for our people. Yet, for some reason, we are quite happy to impose restrictions on migrant workers coming to this country.

Despite all of the debate about the employer's control of the work permit and the long list of injustices such a system has caused, the Minister still persists with this system in this Bill. I hope he has some extremely good reasons for doing so or else that he will reconsider the situation on Committee Stage and accept some amendments to change the system. Some measures in the Bill might prevent the excessive exploitation of workers that we have seen to date but there is no doubt that exploitation will continue as long as the employer controls the permit.

Everyone agrees that migrant workers have contributed immensely to our economy in recent years and most economists predict that, with projected growth rates of between 4% and 5% in the coming years, we will continue to need more migrant workers to sustain our economy. The fact that the work permit is held by the employer is one of the biggest problems facing migrant workers. The next most serious problem for them is their inability to obtain permission to bring their immediate families here to live with them. Repeatedly, they are asked to prove that they are economically capable of looking after their families. Some have, through sheer hard work, saved up to €20,000 but are still told by the authorities here that they do not satisfy the criteria and will not get permission to bring their families here to live with them. I have heard of many such cases in my constituency. It has been a nightmare for some heads of households trying to bring their families here. They have had to apply many times before succeeding. There did not seem to be any definite criteria or any fixed amount of money required to be on deposit in their bank accounts and the granting of permission seemed to be totally at the whim of some official.

This situation makes no sense. Allowing good, hardworking people to have their families with them would be of benefit to this country. It would add to the stability of the workers' lives and help them to integrate more into our society. We must accept that if we allow migrant workers into this country for our own selfish reasons — to sustain and expand our economy — we must also extend to them the most basic of human rights. They must have the right to move from employer to employer and, above all, the right to live with their families.

We must change our attitude towards workers and also towards visitors from the countries where the migrant workers originate. We must accept that their families will move and live here, their children will become part of our society and their extended families and friends will come to visit them. Most public representatives in this House have heard horrendous stories of people arriving at airports to visit family members who are living legally in this country, who are married to Irish people and who have children by Irish citizens being embarrassed and humiliated at airports and, at times, refused entry.

The Minister is producing a guide to rights in eight or ten languages, which gives us a clear indication of the countries of origin of the majority of migrant workers. There should be a review of our embassy structures in these countries. Facilities should be put in place in each embassy to vet and issue visiting or holiday visas to the extended families and friends of migrant workers living here. Of course, controls are necessary but having a visa process in place in the country of origin will ensure that only genuine holiday makers, visitors, friends and families of migrant workers will arrive at our airports. With proper documentation obtained from Irish embassies in the country of origin, there should be no confusion for people arriving on this island. They should receive the traditional Irish welcome, not an interrogation at their point of arrival. This should be done not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it will benefit us in the long term. Many of these countries, as has happened in Ireland, will improve economically and then we will be glad of their custom and their trade. We must also accept that when we invite workers into this country, just as our own experience in the US, England and Australia, many families will remain. While, like us, they will be proud of their ethnic background they, and particularly their children and grandchildren, will become every bit as Irish as the Irish themselves. They will become involved in our culture and sports. Just as the Irish integrated into society in England and the US, migrant workers and their families will become part and parcel of our society. Given our history, it is difficult to understand how so many Irish people are finding the whole concept difficult to grapple with. Perhaps over the past 50 years, those who remained in Ireland and were not forced to emigrate were the lucky ones. Yet, we should all know from our parishes and local areas, whole communities that set up in places like Boston, Chicago, New York, London and Sydney.

Of course, a balance must be kept, and I am sure the Bill will help to achieve this. It is only natural for Irish workers to feel some insecurity when they see actions like those taken by Irish Ferries. They know that in recent years unscrupulous employers exploited migrant workers and forced a situation that, if left unchecked, would eventually lead to a downward trend in general wages in the country.

In this regard the Bill is absolutely essential. Not only must it protect the rights of migrant workers, it must instil confidence in Irish people that the immigration process is being controlled in a way that will benefit the economy and not undermine the job prospects of Irish people. This is why enforcement is so important. The Bill itself will be useless if it is not enforced properly. There must be inspectors to ensure the rights of immigrant workers and to track down and prosecute unscrupulous employers. There must be constant monitoring by the Minister and his Department to ensure quotas are kept at a level in each sector that guarantees the continued expansion of the economy without infringing on the job prospects of Irish people. This may be where the real problem will arise. At this stage, the electorate has little confidence in the Government to get anything right. It has justifiably gained the reputation of continually passing laws without putting in place any resources to ensure their implementation.

Our country and economy need migrant workers to survive and grow. The system must be fair and attractive to these workers, yet it must be controlled. In order to do so, we must face up to the residency problem. We must accept that after a certain number of years working and contributing to our economy, workers and their families must get permanent rights of residency. Without attractive conditions, we will not attract the calibre of worker the economy needs. Almost every other country in the world has a system of naturalisation after a certain period. It is time for us to face up to this issue and include it in the Bill.

The green card system allows individuals to apply for their own work permit and choose their employer. Immigrants that fall into this category have served us extremely well over the years, particularly in the medical profession, including doctors, nurses and paramedics. Many of our county and smaller hospitals could not operate or exist without their presence. We are experiencing skills shortages in a wider range of professions and we desperately need to attract these professionals. However, we are still at a disadvantage, even with this Bill, as there is no clear route for these people to immediately bring their families to live with them here. This is not the case in other countries with which we are competing for these skills. There is a need to deal with this issue now or it will not matter how many green cards the Minister is prepared to issue, as there will not be enough people to take them up if the conditions are not suitable and acceptable to these workers and their families.

I remind the Minister that, apart from migrant workers and green card holders, we have a serious problem to deal with. Since the expansion of the European Union, many thousands of eastern Europeans have legally, and without restriction, become part of our workforce, and rightly so. Each Member knows of far too many cases of exploitation of these workers. Serious concerns were raised recently by the Polish authorities about the treatment of their citizens in this country. The same pertains to citizens of many other countries that are now part of the European Union. We have an obligation as fellow Europeans to protect their rights and to ensure their stay in this country is of the same standard we would expect if we travelled to other European countries.

While accepting that all of this is relatively new to us as a nation, there is no excuse for the behaviour of some of our institutions and citizens. The Government across all Departments has a huge job to do in the first instance to educate Irish people on this new phenomenon and to put structures in place in housing, education and integration policies to ensure that, as a nation, we do not fall into the same trap as other nations. We want integration, not ghettoisation. If the Government does not act now on the broader social implications of this inward migration, the cost to us as a nation will be enormous in the years to come. We can deal better with the issue than other countries. We can learn from their mistakes and create a prosperous united country, where everyone can do extremely well.

As our spokesman, Deputy Hogan, said, Fine Gael broadly welcomes the Second Stage of the Bill. We will table some substantial amendments on Committee Stage and look forward to debating them with the Minister.

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