Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am glad there are 56 inspectors. It is not that long ago that there were more dog wardens in the country than labour inspectors. I worked for a union, tutoring in labour law. We were acutely aware of the lack of resources for inspections.

I do not want to take up too much of the Minister of State's time, but we have to go a bit further with this. We need a mechanism in labour law which will insist that if a watchdog such as the WRC receives enough complaints from the public it can carry out a thorough investigation into the activities of any company, such as those I have mentioned, and the hyper-exploitation of young people. If we let this happen, why would all bus drivers, teachers and nurses not be on self-employed contracts? We are hurtling in that direction if we do not stop this.

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