Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

The matter I raise on the Adjournment concerns the urgent need for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to reconsider changes she proposes to make to the work permit scheme on 1 June, the need for her to discuss with the relevant workers such proposals and the need for such workers, their unions and the advocacy organisations to be invited to participate in a consultation process given that these workers have made such a significant contribution to Irish society and the Irish economy.

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, well in his new appointment. However, I hope he begins his work in that Department by relaying a reasonable argument back to the Department and by being able to change minds where it is necessary and in the public interest to do so.

What is being suggested by way of changes to the permit system on 1 June takes no account of the contribution made by work permit holders over a long period of time. Recently, a press release referred to a worker who has been here for nine years and whose family is part of Irish society. If made redundant, in order to find an alternative job, he must wait until that job has been advertised for a minimum of two months. At three months, such a person is illegal in this country and loses rights, including the right to sustain his or her family. It is in breach of every principle of worker protection, including the protections provided by the International Labour Organisation and contained in the conventions Ireland has signed, to put such workers in a vulnerable position.

I have travelled with Members of this House to the United States of America making the case for those Irish people living in the shadows there and anxious to achieve some status and to be recognised. They point out that they have paid their taxes and they want some form of recognition in the United States of America. Could we imagine a situation if they were all given two months to get out of the United States of America yet that is precisely what is being proposed in regard to work permit holders who become redundant in Ireland? What is proposed is unnecessary and is an action by stealth. It is a device to make the position of such people impossible in terms of staying here.

I wish to indicate where my party stands on this matter. I have long been an advocate of Ireland signing the convention guaranteeing the rights of all migrant workers and their families but I have been told by successive Ministers that Ireland will never do so under this Government. I believe in the right of workers from wherever they come to enjoy an equality of rights. These changes in the work permit system do not accord an equality of rights. We look for rights abroad for our own people but over those for whom we have responsibility, we refuse to exercise the same principle.

Over a period, such migrant workers will have paid PRSI and taxes totalling approximately €1.5 billion. They will have paid €10.986 million in registration fees to various bodies and to the Garda national immigration bureau. They will have paid €15.5 million in work permit fees. Some €140 million will have been paid by international students. That is separate from what has been spent by migrant workers in this economy, approximately €2 billion.

We are talking about 30,000 people. There has been a massive reduction of 60% in the number of new work permits issued in the past two years. I appreciate that I am addressing a new Minister of State and I wish him well. However, I do not want him to say tonight that this is a matter over which he has no control. The Government has control and it should now postpone this until we have had adequate talks, so that we may put a different, fairer and more humane system in place.

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