Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill.

It is extremely timely. In particular when there is a significant growth in jobs in this country, it is important that we have people who are able to fill the jobs. An amazing change has occurred in the past ten years in terms of the unemployment levels coming down and employers now finding that there is a shortage of workers, and therefore we must respond accordingly. It is important as well that we provide protection for people who were born here, who have gone through the education process and who have qualifications. It is appropriate that the Bill provides full protection for Irish people in the jobs market as well, and that people are not exploited. There is an interesting change in the Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures, which show that more than 700,000 people are living in this country who were not born here. That is a big change.

Regarding permits, it is important that there is flexibility as well. I have come across a number of people who have come here on a work permit, who have gone back to further education and got additional qualifications but they find it difficult to move on to jobs that are vacant that they want to fill. There are many difficulties with that. We must have flexibility with work permits to ensure mechanisms are in place to accommodate people who have made the effort to further advance their situation and in order that we can protect people.

One issue I wish to raise concerns agency contracts. It is important that we do not have any abuse or misuse of that system. While we need flexibility, it is important that we have protection for workers at all times. It is extremely important that we do not have a scenario where a lot of money is being paid to agencies for people to be able to get employment and then deductions are made from the workers. It is important also that we provide safety mechanisms and protection, even if we do allow some change in how agencies bring people here.

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