Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

When will there be a full complement of inspectors in the labour inspectorate? The Government signed up to this in the previous partnership agreement but a new agreement has come into force since. The Minister of State said the new legislation to put NERA on a statutory footing cannot be implemented because of the lack of agreement to date with the social partners, yet when there is agreement on an issue, the Government cannot deliver on it.

Are there plans to establish cross-departmental labour investigation teams similar to those proposed by Deputy Morgan for the transport sector? The "Prime Time Investigates" programme also exposed the flouting of tax laws. It is critically important to have that mechanism up and running as soon as possible so that a co-ordinated approach can be adopted on this issue.

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