Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

There will clearly be no legislation in the lifetime of this Dáil. Furthermore, the Government does not need legislation to honour the commitment entered into on labour inspectors. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, in reply to a parliamentary question tabled by my colleague, Deputy Lynch, on 31 January, stated the number of inspectors at the present time was 31. In reply to another question from Deputy Kehoe, he stated the number of labour inspectors "will be progressively increased from 31 at present to 90". That is interesting because last week the Taoiseach stated in respect of the request by the Director of Corporate Enforcement for additional staff that, "The reason he is not getting them is that we made a priority in that Department to put the staff into new inspection sectors dealing with compliance by workers. The number of inspectors has risen from 30 to 90. It rose to 60 last year and 90 this year." The Minister told Deputies Kehoe and Lynch the number was 31. Therefore, the reason Mr. Paul Appleby is not getting his staff is that the Taoiseach has created 90 inspector posts, although the Minister said the number is 31.

I do not know what the Taoiseach is talking about in regard to legislation because if one looks at the disconnect between personal public service, PPS, numbers and work permits, it is plain that the bogus self-employment phenomenon is rampant.

I repeat that for the first time in the history of this State, the Taoiseach allowed a company, with which he has close connections through his office, politically and so on, to engineer its business in such a way that it let go its Irish workforce and, as a result, was able to access the redundancy fund to the extent of €4.3 million — €4.3 million of our money to let the workforce go. The 48 workers who were kept on, by agreement, have now been driven out so only four Irish workers remain. That is the state of play.

The Taoiseach spoke about promised legislation and said it would be brought forward. It will not be brought forward in the lifetime of this Dáil. Nothing is being done about it and this phenomenon continues.

See this speech in context