Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Through multilingual leaflets and a lo-call phone service whereby people from different countries can ring up and get a response in their own language on their rights and entitlements, what is available in terms of employment opportunities and so on. The Know Before You Go campaign aims to talk to people before they arrive in Ireland about their entitlements and so on. I recently launched that campaign with FÁS.

As I said earlier, we do not issue work permits generally for domestic workers because of the difficulties involved in enforcement and the potential for abuse to emerge. This has been a very restrictive feature on issuing work permits to domestic workers. We are aware of very difficult cases where people with significant illnesses who live at home require domestic support and help. In some cases we have responded positively in those situations where we have been given certain guarantees and assurances about supports that would be available. Given the demographics and the way the country is going, if we can get the enforcement and compliance issues right, there is potential for a proper, regulated market in the area of domestic employment. I hope we can iron out some of the representational and legal issues in the context of social partnership because there are wider issues around the joint labour committees and also around the issue of labour law enforcement, on which we have engaged comprehensively and substantively with the social partners.

See this speech in context