Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no legal definition of the term "au pair" in Irish legislation, and individuals described as au pairs, nannies or childminders are not exempted or treated as separate categories of workers under Irish employment law. Ireland's body of employment rights legislation protects all employees who are legally employed on an employer-employee basis, regardless of what title is given to them. Therefore, once it is clear that a person is working under a contract of employment on a full-time or part-time basis that person has the same protection under employment law as other employees. For example, the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 requires that any persons working under a contract of employment be paid the statutory national minimum wage. For the purposes of this Act, this means a contract of service or apprenticeship or any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person to do or perform personally any work or service for that person.

Where the National Employment Rights Authority receives a complaint involving someone described as an au pair, it will investigate with a view to establishing whether a person has statutory entitlements under employment law. The question of whether a person is an employee is generally established by reference to the provisions of existing employment legislation and established contract law, regardless of any title or designation given to the individual. Complaints involving au pairsare considered on a case-by-case basis in the light of the facts of each case.

In addition to NERA's programme of inspections involving domestic workers, which has been ongoing since 2011, last year the authority launched an information booklet on the employment rights of domestic workers to coincide with Ireland's ratification of the International Labour Organisaiton Domestic Workers Convention, C189. It is available in a number of languages.

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