Feargal Quinn (Independent)

Another difficulty arises from the fact that the immigrants do not know what are their rights. Sometimes, trade unions can be to blame for that. There is an onus on us all, including trade unions, to draw the attention of those who do not know their rights to what their rights are. Many of the workers come from a totally different situation in their home countries. They might be more used to tough employers who can do whatever they like without any interference from the state or trade unions. Some come from places where a wage far below our legal minimum wage is considered quite generous. Now, we have the highest minimum wage in Europe, or if we do not, then we are very close to it. We can be proud of that fact. On occasions, however, I question the wisdom of that, as it eliminates jobs that would otherwise exist but do not exist because of the minimum wage being at a certain level. We can discuss that subject on some other occasion. That all adds up to a situation where we cannot reasonably expect our new immigrants to stand up for their own rights. In that sense, we must treat them differently and they need more protection than the average Irish worker. Unlike the average Irish worker, the immigrant probably knows very little about his or her rights and entitlements, and still less about how to go about dealing with the problems that they come up against.

The recent controversies revealed the total inadequacy of the labour inspectorate. I do not of course mean that the inspectors themselves are inadequate, but it is obvious that there are not enough of them and that the inspectorate is woefully under-resourced. We cannot afford to let that state of affairs continue.

It is with a heavy heart that I say recent events have shown that there are too many employers in this country who will exploit the people who work for them if they get the chance to do so. I would like to think such people are few and far between, but we can no longer be as sure about that as we used to be. In recent months, problems have arisen with individual farmers using immigrant labour. Problems have arisen among giant multinationals, which we brought here to help build our infrastructure. We have also heard about problems arising among respected private sector companies that have contracted out jobs under doubtful circumstances to third-party firms supplying cheap foreign labour.

I join those urging the Government to take the problem seriously and to take effective action to deal with it as a matter of urgency. The Minister's heart is in the right place and the intention of the motion is correct. To an extent, I always hope that such motions debated on a Wednesday evening will not have an amendment condemning them. I believe it is possible to have the best of both worlds.