Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is all very well to describe who the inspectors are and what they do. By dint of my former employment, I know well who they are and I know very well what they do. There are 53 of them, which is 37 short of the 90 that were recommended back in 2006. At that time, the parties to the agreement, that is, the social partners, the employers, the employers' representatives, the workers' representatives and the Government, agreed that 90 was the figure that was needed. We are at 53 now. We have more people working and living on the island now and working conditions have arguably deteriorated in line with the reduction in trade union density. Notwithstanding that, there are new phenomena in the workplace such as Deliveroo riders. That type of work was not work when I was younger and was not work even back in 2006 when it was deemed necessary to increase the number of inspectors to 90. When are we going to get to 90? That would only bring us up to the number that was required in 2006. It is now 2021 and I would argue - and I do not think anyone would correct me - that we need more inspectors now than we could possibly have needed back in 2006. There was agreement on this issue in 2006. It was put into the national wage agreement at the time that 90 was the minimum number of inspectors needed. The Minister of State and I agree that they do great work and that they are worth their weight in gold. We also agree that they are a very necessary part of the functioning of the industrial relations machinery of the State, but can we not agree that we need more of them? Can we not agree that the minimum number of inspectors must be what was required in 2006, which was 90?

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