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

I will take this opportunity to speak to my own amendments. I know a lot of the amendments have been grouped but they are all under the same heading of seasonal employment permits. I intend to speak on this issue only once this evening. I do not believe there is a need for seasonal employment permits. With the greatest of respect to the Minister of State, nothing he has said has convinced me. I am not saying that nothing he says will convince me, only that nothing he said has convinced me as yet. The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment has gone into this issue in significant detail. The committee has discussed this with experts in the area and with the Department and the committee produced a report which relayed its concerns about the introduction of seasonal employment permits. I believe there is not sufficient evidence to support the introduction of this type of permit. I am further concerned that we will also increase the risk of exploitation of the workers who will be employed under these permits. They will not be in Ireland for long enough to learn about or become acquainted with their rights. They will be here for long enough to be exploited but not for long enough to join a trade union. That is a grave concern I have.

The introduction of these permits will create a class of worker who will be the most vulnerable within the labour market. The creation of seasonal work permits to address supposed difficulties in certain sectors, regardless of whether that is the intention, could potentially facilitate the circumvention of improving pay and conditions. I spoke at length with a long-time union organiser who still organises workers today and he said the reason trade unions, migrant rights organisations and others are concerned about and oppose these permits is that the workers will be here for exactly long enough to be exploited but not for long enough to be organised and then they will be gone.

In Europe, we have seen evidence that such permits facilitate this exploitation. We know most employers do not engage in awful practices such as exploiting their workers, and I want the record to reflect that, but there are some who do. For those who do, these workers are the most vulnerable. It should be neither downplayed nor embellished. The facts are there. In 2023, the WRC carried out 4,727 inspections of businesses to ensure compliance with employment rights legislation. In the course of its investigations, the WRC found more than 1,000 breaches of the Payment of Wages Act, more than 1,000 breaches of the Organisation of Working Time Act, and more than 1,000 breaches of workers' terms of employment, to name but three of 11 areas investigated by it. The WRC recovered €1,950,601 in unpaid wages withheld from workers in 2023. If we go back as far as 2001, which is as far back as I can get records for, the WRC has recovered more than €22 million in wages withheld from workers. Some of the sectors with consistently high breach rates are those to which one would expect seasonal employment permits to be allocated. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission wrote to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment stating that seasonal permit holders faced increased vulnerability to exploitation and the sectors where seasonal permits are present are high-risk sectors for trafficking and labour exploitation. It is for that reason I fear the creation of seasonal work permits in this way would be a grave mistake. What these workers need are decent pay and conditions and a right to collective bargaining. Until that exists for all workers, the creation of any kind of seasonal work permit will be, I believe, highly problematic.

It is not just Sinn Féin that is concerned about these seasonal worker permits. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has expressed concerns, as has Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, MRCI, and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. The Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment expressed concern in its report on the Bill. We are not a lone voice; it is not just Sinn Féin that has a difficulty with this. I would argue that the Government, in proposing this, is a lone voice because I can name all of the people who can back this. No-one is clamouring for it and we certainly have not been under pressure. The opinion of many of those who have real experience in dealing with the labour market indicates that they are vehemently opposed to the introduction of seasonal work permits and we remain so.

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