Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I also read of the case of the plastering sub-contractor working for a very prominent building contractor. Many building contractors are members of the Construction Industry Federation and most new immigrants work in the construction industry. In that context, it is imperative, if social partnership talks go ahead, that it be emphasised that immigrant workers are at least entitled to basic, proper wages.

I have said on numerous occasions in the House that it is not satisfactory to have only 13 inspectors in the labour inspectorate when there is a need for at least 30. We should increase the number of inspectors to reflect the times we live in because I am sure what has been exposed in the newspapers is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of exploitation. Our treatment of immigrants here will be reported in newspapers in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and so forth and the image it projects of Ireland will be a wrong one. It behoves us to tackle exploitation because it is commonplace.