Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I, too, fear this is not an isolated case. I have to wonder, if allegations such as this can be brought forward by more than a score of nurses in a public sector workplace, which is a unionised workplace, what is going on in some private sector workplaces with vulnerable workers who do not have trade union protection and who are in fact employed in places that are not just non-union but anti-union.

With regard to some of the wider questions that are raised by this case, Migrant Nurses Ireland stated, "We strongly seek the implementation of mandatory training in the areas of equality, diversity and inclusion." That is mandatory training. It also stated: "We’re bringing people from other parts of the world to support the health system – but we do nothing to support them in return."

I point out that the Minister of State did not address one of the questions I asked him. Does he not think that the State's visa policy creates a situation where there is a huge power imbalance between, say, a manager on one hand and a vulnerable worker on the other and that where such a massive power imbalance exists, these types of situations are more likely to occur?

I will conclude on this. I know it is not the exact same case and the Minister of State will not have prepared a response, but I would like if he could come back to me in writing in the next few days with an answer on the 1,000 Indian nurses who were brought to this State to work as healthcare assistants at the start of the year and whose exploitation has been highlighted in the media. Both the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Department of Justice were working over the summer on various changes to the rules and regulations and visa systems which might be of benefit to these workers. Have we any update on the deliberations of those two Departments?

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