Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Four or five have left. There are some in training and the ten language inspectors are in place. We are well advanced. The only issue we had to resolve was through the industrial relations process and social partnership. We worked with the unions in the public sector to devise methods of recruitment and so forth. There has been a dramatic transformation not only in the number of labour inspectors but in the legal capacity the authority has and the financial advice available to it. There is a strong management tier in the inspectorate. We have merged several units from the old system into the new authority. We are already beginning to see the impact of NERA, particularly in terms of its construction campaign, which is the subject of a later question, the number of site visits and the number of companies into which it inquired. I am positive about the prospects for the impact it will have.

We are working with the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform towards a one-stop-shop or single office approach to synergise the visa and work permit issues. We take a reasonable and flexible approach to people who fall between stools in such cases, particularly people who might have been subject to abuse by unscrupulous employers. We try to regularise their employment status where it is clear that has occurred.

See this speech in context