Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 8: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment in view of the most recent revelation of worker exploitation, Polish workers employed by a company (details supplied) on the refurbishment of the Moneypoint ESB plant being paid below the minimum wage, his views on the fact that the labour inspectorate remains inadequately staffed and resourced to ensure the enforcement of existing labour law. [11228/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The labour inspectorate contacted the principal parties in the ESB dispute on Tuesday, 13 March 2006 and subsequently met senior representatives of the ESB and its agents. These contacts have been ongoing since and considerable progress has been made.

The enforcement of employment rights is often characterised as a discrete function undertaken solely by the labour inspectorate. There is an extensive corpus of legislation providing for a range of obligations and entitlements for both employers and employees. The employment rights arena is populated by various bodies, for example, the Labour Court. As always, there is scope for improvement but the solution is not to just simply appoint additional labour inspectors.

The challenge in a rapidly growing economy is to ensure adequate, timely and effective enforcement of compliance with statutory and other provisions. This was recognised in Sustaining Progress. Arising from commitments then, the Government has completed reviews of the employment rights bodies, the mandate and resourcing of the labour inspectorate, the joint labour committee system. Each of these reviews has been completed and follow-on work is now in train.

The broad question of sustaining employment standards and initiatives to ensure employment rights compliance is being addressed as a priority in the current round of national partnership talks. Individuals may also take their cases before a commissioner in the rights commissioner service of the Labour Relations Commission.

There is a commitment to a campaign of dissemination on obligations and entitlements arising under employment rights legislation. The campaign will be targeted at both employers and employees and will focus on particular audiences such as those engaged in sectors now generally populated by non-Irish workers.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Is the Minister of State considering introducing legislation to hold the first contractor responsible for ensuring all labour legislation is adhered to? With 31 inspectors to a workforce of 2.07 million people, each inspector is responsible for 66,775 workers. It is a vast number and those inspectors now have an additional legislative burden. Does the Minister of State consider that the additional legislative burden the inspectorate has to handle has been matched by additional numbers of inspectors? It certainly does not appear to have been.

Media reports in the past week have suggested the Minister of State may be on the verge of making proposals concerning the labour inspectorate. Could he tell the House what plans he has in this regard?

In early 2005, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment circulated to the social partners a report entitled Mandate and Resourcing of the Labour Inspectorate. Will the Minister of State tell us what the shortcomings were in the current set up, and whether they were identified in that report?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is correct in stating that it can be extraordinarily difficult to establish who exactly is the employer of a particular employee. For example, frequently on building sites not only is there a principal contractor — this has arisen in the case of Moneypoint as well — but also there is a subcontractor under which there might be other subcontractors. Therefore, there is a particular difficulty in identifying exactly who is the employer. That is one of the issues currently being examined with a view to ensuring the inspector will have the right to pinpoint exactly who is responsible for a particular employee's pay and conditions.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Is that a "No"? Does that mean the Minister of State is not considering legislation at present?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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In so far as it can be addressed, that will form a central part of the legislation, which will arise from the current round of social partnership negotiations. The number of inspectors has nearly doubled in the 18 months during which I have been in the Department. That is not to say, however, that the number was in any way near to being adequate previously. Nevertheless, considerable progress is being made.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The numbers have halved, not doubled.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I am referring to the number of inspectors.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Okay.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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They rose from ten to 14 and from 17 to the current level of 31. Depending on which dates one takes, the number has more than doubled. In view of the history of numbers and dates quoted in the Chamber in recent days, however, it might be better for us to stay away from that territory.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I think so, too. It helps to keep one's mouth shut.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The review of the mandate and resources issue will inform whatever legislation arises in this area. I cannot say with particular certainty to the Deputy or to the House exactly what will be in the legislation. However, every attempt will certainly be made to ensure all the shortcomings that have been pinpointed, both in terms of mandate and resources, will be addressed in new legislation or amending legislation, if appropriate.

There is another idea floating about, to which I think Deputy Morgan is referring, that either a new agency should be formed to take over the labour inspectorate or the inspectorate should be placed with one of the existing agencies. Deputy Howlin and others have expressed strong views that the Health and Safety Authority might be the appropriate agency with which to place that inspectorate. No decisions have been made in that regard but I assure the House the matter is being approached with an open mind.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I take the Minister of State is telling us the notion of making the inspectorate a statutory agency is not immediately on the cards. Can he address the concern many of us have that the issue of legislation concerning the inspectorate is not being properly addressed currently because it is being used as a bargaining chip in the social partnership talks? As we all know, those talks could drag on for a considerable time.

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I certainly hope the talks will not drag on too long but it is inevitable that these issues would be central to the current round of negotiations. Even if the events in Gama Construction and elsewhere had not arisen, the reality is that these reports were commissioned from the previous round of partnership talks with a view to being considered in the current round. That was inevitably going to be the case. Obviously, from the Government's viewpoint, and that of the Oireachtas, it is desirable to have some level of agreement among the social partners on how we proceed. I believe we will have a large measure of agreement. We certainly have had, heretofore, concerning the reports.

While there is resistance in some areas to some of the changes proposed in the employment rights bodies, ultimately we will come to the view that what operates best in dealing with our current requirements is what we must do. I am confident we will have an agreement arising from social partnership on how we should proceed and that we will be able to do so.

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 9: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of inspections carried out by the labour inspectorate and the number of prosecutions initiated by the inspectorate in respect of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and to date in 2006; if there are plans to increase this number during the remainder of 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11272/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The number of workplace inspections/visits undertaken by the labour inspectorate, during and after normal business hours, and prosecutions initiated in respect of the years 2002 to 2005 and to date in 2006 are set out in the following tabular statement.

The primary function of the labour inspectorate is to seek compliance and rectification of any breaches identified, including payment of any arrears due to employees. Inspectors pursue allegations of worker mistreatment and seek redress for the individual or individuals concerned and, if appropriate, a prosecution is initiated. Successful prosecution can be dependent on adequate support from witnesses.

Since November 2005, the number of labour inspectors assigned and serving has been increased to 31 officers. As part of the programme of work that is being implemented to train the new inspectors, their schedule includes a focus on national minimum wage compliance, which commenced in February 2006.

In addition to the new inspectors, a number of experienced officers are participating in this exercise to provide support and guidance as well as undertaking inspections themselves. It is expected the additional resources and the focused campaign will substantially increase the number of inspections and visits carried out in 2006.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Minister of State has provided the same information we received in the last written answer concerning the amount of prosecutions that were initiated. How many of them were successful and how many have been completed? Does the Minister of State have those figures?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I will get them for the Deputy. I do not have them at the moment.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I think those statistics are important because initiating a prosecution and bringing it to a conclusion are two entirely different things.

The Minister of State is aware of the Labour Party's position on the Health and Safety Authority and he has heard it often enough from Deputy Howlin. Most of us were under the impression that, in this instance, the inspectors unearthed wrongdoing by employers or saw to it that they were compliant. It would appear, however, that the inspectors are now being contacted by employees on a small scale and are then bringing prosecutions. Surely that should be the central job of the various organisations dealing with people who claim to be badly treated at work, rather than being a function of the labour inspectorate. It is outrageous to have the inspectorate tied up at that level. Are there plans to organise the inspectorate in such as way that its sole function would be to inspect places of employment? Construction sites are not the only locations where workers' rights are abused, other areas are also involved. How many initiated prosecutions were concluded?

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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As I said, I will obtain the exact numbers of successful and completed prosecutions for Deputy Lynch. In fact, that was one of the factors which influenced the report on mandate and resources because successful prosecutions are extraordinarily difficult to achieve due to the level of proof needed and the lack of clarity surrounding the quality of payslips required. We wish to encourage people to raise questions with the labour inspectors. Obviously, we would like them to raise questions that are relevant to the inspectors and sometimes they are not quite sure that is the case. There is a substantial requirement on the burden of proof which most frequently includes a requirement that people are prepared to give evidence. The review recommends a change in that regard to the Employment Appeals Tribunal or the Labour Court in dealing with issues of this nature. That has considerable merit and may well happen.

As regards the HSA proposal, there are 100 inspectors with that authority but many of them are specialist inspectors. There seem to be considerable advantages in having people who are in any event visiting a premises check out the additional issues of, for example, payslips and pay and conditions. If we could manage to impart to employees the information on their rights, they would be in a position to draw the matter to the attention of the inspectorate and fewer visits would be required. Undoubtedly, while there would be many more prosecutions in the short term, in the medium and long term people would comply on a much wider scale than is the case.