Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Employment Agency Regulation Bill 2009. I welcome the introduction of this legislation, which has been promised by the Government for some time. It is a positive move. I hope it will address some of the anomalies encountered by agency workers, as well as those who recruit them and bring them to this country. The vast majority of people who come to Ireland through the agency system are involved in legitimate forms of employment. In many cases, they are paid more than people who are ordinarily resident here. It is a favoured option for many people who want to gain employment here. They enjoy a level of flexibility and get an opportunity to improve their skills. They may have decided to go down this road for lifestyle or other reasons. Agency work gives people a chance to travel and experience work practices in other EU countries. Not only has it been used in this country, for example in the health system, but Irish people have also gone abroad to avail of similar systems. Far more Irish people will be going abroad in the years to come, sadly, because of this country's economic problems.

Anyone who has followed this issue over recent years will be familiar with the type of exploitation that takes place. The use of agency workers was a hot political issue in the early 2000s. I welcome the proposal in this legislation to introduce a licensing system. When the Minister of State responds, I hope he will talk about the protections that will be put in place for agency workers. Some workers, like employers, have to pay fees to employment agencies. I accept that certain checks and balances are being put in place in this regard. They can be examined on Committee Stage. If a licence is withdrawn from an agency, it is important that fallback arrangements are in place to protect employers and workers. The example that comes to mind is the bonding system used in the travel agency sector. We are all familiar with that system, which seems to be quite successful.

I hope a number of my concerns about this Bill will be clarified on Committee Stage. The Bill provides for the establishment of a code of practice, which will set out the practices and standards to be met by employment agencies. The code will also provide practical guidance on the approach to be adopted when queries are made, etc. While the code of practice is positive, I would like to raise two concerns about it. This country has a huge problem with providing information to ordinary citizens. When people are trying to get information, they often choose to go to citizens' information offices or contact public representatives rather than use the Internet. On-line information is often spread across different websites, or parts of websites. Different types of search engine have to be used when one is looking for information on social welfare and PRSI entitlements, for example.

I presume information about this legislation will be posted on the website of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment under the heading of "agency workers". In the past, factually incorrect and outdated information has been allowed to remain on departmental websites. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform probably has the worst record. I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, to publish on a single website all the data of relevance to foreign workers and migrants who come to this country. I refer to information about the basic functioning of this country, on matters as varied as the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Road Safety Authority, our labour laws and the role of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in issuing visas. The duties of people who want to come to this country and contribute to this economy should be laid out in plain English. The information that is currently available is scattered all over the place. It is difficult enough for Irish people to access such information, but it is far more difficult for people from outside Ireland whose first language might not be English.

I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, and Deputy Costello, have dealt as I have with the cases of people who came to this country under the work permit system or some other system, but have fallen out of the system because they did not comply with some rule or other. In many instances, they were not aware that they had to comply with the rule. It is important to bring all of this information together. Many non-governmental organisations are willing to translate it into various languages so that it can be available on websites at no cost to the taxpayer or the State. In the past couple of days, all of us have received an extremely useful booklet from Crosscare that could be used as a blueprint for the development of an effective website that would benefit us all.

The second aspect of the code of practice about which I have concerns is the question of whether it will have any statutory authority. I am sick and tired of people giving the two fingers to codes of practice which have been put in place across the board in name only. The Tánaiste spoke this morning about the codes of practice that apply to retailers. No one honestly believes that retailers are complying with the codes of practice on below-cost selling and the exploitation of suppliers.

I wish to speak about the many workers in this country who are exploited. I appreciate that the number of agency workers who are affected by exploitation is quite small. As the former Minister of State with responsibility for labour affairs, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, is fully aware of this problem. The people of Ireland, above all other countries, should be conscious of the implications of the exploitation of workers. Over the years, thousands of Irish people went abroad only to be exploited by employers who do not have any moral fibre. That is now taking place in this country, sadly, although it is difficult to know the extent of it. While there was much more talk about exploitation during the good times, I firmly believe that undocumented migrant workers and people who are illegally resident in this country continue to be exploited by unscrupulous employers.

I spoke recently to an employer who has submitted tenders for public contracts with his local authority. The man in question became so sick of his failure to get previous contracts that he submitted a below-cost tender on which he would have lost money. He failed to get that contract. He firmly believes it is not possible for those who secure such contracts to fulfil them within this laws of this country. He put in a tender below cost but still failed to get the contract. The point he made to me was that the only way the other employer could have won the contract was to have paid below the minimum employment rate. We all know this is happening in other areas but it is difficult to eradicate it. The State has a good idea of prices in public contracts after everything is cut to the bone yet it is prepared to give contracts to tenders well below cost.

While such practice in the supermarket trade is a hot political issue, it is going on in other trades but we continue to turn a blind eye to these practices. I do not know how widespread it is but there have been many examples of the exploitation of agency workers involved in major public contracts such as at the Moneypoint power station. I have reports of many more public contracts where workers have been exploited but the difficulty lies in getting the documentary evidence to support the claims. There is an onus on public agencies when awarding contracts that it is not just the cost bottom-line that is taken into consideration. Recently, I came across a case where a public agency took on a contractor who had failed to deliver on a previous contract. This should not happen. The agency's defence was that the price was so low it could not ignore the tender. Whether it will be delivered upon is another day's work.

Labour exploitation has not come to the fore the way it should have. It is building up and facilitating racism. I am constantly raising with the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher, the commitment given in the partnership agreement, Towards 2016, to employ 90 labour inspectors by the end of 2007. They are still not in place; at the end of 2009, the complement was still 19 short.

Exploitation has not gone away. I accept industrial relations issues are involved. However, parking that aspect of it, the Minister of State knows as well as I do that the National Employment Rights Authority, NERA, has been going for the low-hanging fruit instead of dealing with more serious exploitation cases in the system. It needs to be prioritised. We were given commitments in the past about cross-departmental joint labour investigation teams. The Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Revenue Commissioners and NERA were to carry out co-ordinated investigations into labour exploitation in which one agency would support the others in collating evidence to identify non-compliance with employment rights and other labour legislation. Have they been put in place? The last time I checked, they still were not. Data is available to the Department of Social and Family Affairs and other State organs which can identify labour exploitation and social welfare fraud. However, this is not collated, co-ordinated or identified.

This is leading to frustration, resentment and annoyance among the public. FÁS has predicted up to 335 people will lose their jobs every day this year. Labour exploitation is eating into this and fuelling resentment which is not good for the country in the long run. Ireland will need new people coming into the country to help turn the current economic circumstances around. The Finance Bill, on Committee Stage this week, contains specific provisions to encourage foreign funds from the Middle East and new high-skilled workers to come to Ireland. Accordingly, we need to stamp down on labour exploitation. It undermines legitimate employment and employers who are being put out of business because they cannot win contracts. It also undermines social cohesiveness.

Even during the good times, the black economy was estimated at €3.5 billion. Foreign labour was a small part of this but the black economy has grown rapidly in the past 18 months. We need to see co-ordination between the various State agencies concerned to ensure labour exploitation is eradicated. It is damaging our economy and leading to the exploitation of our social welfare system.

The Bill provides for exemptions for various agencies. It is not clear whether they will be provided to public institutions, such as FÁS, educational institutions or private companies. There is much potential to develop the education sector in the economy. At a conservative estimate, the foreign student-education sector could bring an additional €1 billion per annum in badly needed capital into the economy and create approximately 6,000 new high-end jobs. However, the regime for foreign students needs to be reformed. It has been promised for the past seven years with review after review but no action from the Government. The regime is mainly focused in the Departments of Education and Science and Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

However, there have been abuses in this sector. Three weeks ago, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform highlighted the weaknesses in the system during Question Time. He stated:

On inspection some time ago, a college in Dublin 8 had no desks, whiteboards, blackboards, books or papers. The so-called principal was unwilling to open the doors of the college, which effectively was being used as residential accommodation. At another college in Cork that was visited, none of the 70 so-called students who were registered was in attendance. The excuse given was that the students were off on their mid-term break. This site was visited again during the following month, when only eight students out of 59 were in attendance.

I will not leave out the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher. In September 2008, when I questioned him on this issue of foreign workers and students, he made the point that a loophole existed in respect of student workers and it was something he was actively examining at the Department. Some 18 months later, nothing has been done about it. When the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, published his plans on the student education sector, he parked the issue of employment. If we are to seriously deal with the potential to create jobs in this economy, we must tackle the issue of students working up to 20 hours per week and which students will be allowed to work. My recommendation is to revert to the system in place prior to 2000, where someone on a course over 18 months could work within the system but someone here less than that period of time does not have the right to work. When applying for a visa, the student must give a commitment that he or she has the financial resources to remain for that period of time without work.

The Government has continued to long-finger actions that could deal with the racism bubbling under the surface in this country. With hundreds of thousands of people unemployed in this country, including many young people, we are facing a powder keg unless the Government is prepared to tackle these issues head-on in the not too distant future.

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