Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

The Minister mentioned new legislation. Does that refer to amendments to the 1991 Act? How or when does the Minister of State intend introducing legislation? Are there constitutional or other legal difficulties around the area of exchange of information between the Revenue Commissioners and the Department or labour inspectorate in forming an accurate assessment of real pay? Is that a simple process or does it introduce further difficulties?

The case involving Moneypoint concerns one of the largest contracts in the country. However, even in the smallest contract of employment it is very difficult to ascertain the real rate of pay unless we have access to bank account details. Is there not a concern, especially with our permit system, that the power of the employer to hold the permit in small localised employment situations is excessive? This power would probably dissuade an employee from disclosing that net pay was much lower than the declared pay on the wage slip. Do we not need to look wider and further in terms of the implications of the recent discovery of these false pay rates? Should we not amend our migration and permit system to ensure we have full transparency and do not allow situations evolve where a gross pay rate is a multiple of the real pay rate?

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