Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As my Labour Party colleagues have stated, the Labour Party recently launched a document entitled, A Fair Place to Work and Live. It deals with the issues raised by this motion. I wish to highlight some of the proposals made in this document. The first proposal relates to the issue of the standards that should be applied and complied with when companies are employed by the State and local authorities. Senator Hanafin referred to the Gama workers and the revelations about their conditions of work and the exploitation to which they were subjected by the company while they were working on contracts for the State and local authorities, including my own local authority.

Gama was contracted by South Dublin County Council to build council houses. As a local public representative I was shocked on learning of the conditions which these workers experienced with regard to their pay and daily living conditions. We must learn from this and ensure it does not happen in the future. The issue has been raised by public representatives and the local authority. Councillors from all sides of the political divide were appalled at the conditions and wanted to ensure this did not happen again. The Government needs to take action, if necessary through legislation, to ensure that the State has the right to insist that contractors working in the public sector are in compliance with basic standards of behaviour, including their treatment of their staff. The Government must introduce the legislation required to provide for this. Perhaps the Minister will comment.

The public sector, of all sectors, must ensure there are proper conditions. The public sector looks after its own employees, and rights and basic standards have been fought for and secured over the years. However, there is now a system where the State and local authorities can have people working on their projects who do not have the basic rights we have come to expect. What is the Minister's response to this issue?

Second, the Labour Party proposes the reform of the existing work permit system to provide for a green card system which will not bind workers to a particular employer. This is long-standing Labour Party policy. It is a key part of the policy document issued by the then Labour Party spokesperson on justice, Deputy Howlin, entitled Ending the Chaos, which outlined Labour Party immigration policy. I have put forward this policy many times in this House. We must have a comprehensive immigration policy that is based on a green card system. It would be a positive system.

The Labour Party supports immigration controls. They are necessary for many different reasons. A country must have an immigration and emigration system. One of the reasons it is needed is so people can know where they stand. It will also prevent the racism that results from people having fears about the immigration system and being misinformed. There must be a comprehensive system under which everybody will know their position. I have argued previously in the House that our system is a negative one. People who come to this country for economic reasons are badly treated, unless they arrive under the work permit system. We need a system under which they can apply for a green card. People from many different countries should be allowed to apply for these cards.

The work permit system bonds employees to an employer. Although the Government has introduced reforms in that regard, it has not gone far enough. The permit still relates to a specific employer and a specific job. There has been a change in the application process but it is still based on a restrictive system. A restrictive system such as ours encourages exploitation. If the employee is not happy in a job, he or she does not have the freedom to seek another job. The system is very restrictive in that regard. A green card system similar to that in the United States would be better. It could be applied on the basis of monitoring the country's labour needs from year to year and adjusting the system accordingly.

The United States has a strict immigration system but it is much more positive than ours. It does not criminalise immigrants in the same way our system does and it does not bond immigrants to employers. Unlike Ireland, it also grants citizenship to people on the basis of being born in the country.

I will now refer to an issue raised in the Dáil by my colleague, Deputy Broughan. It relates to displacement and the position of people who were previously employees and who have — subject to their own agreement, although they felt they had no choice — become self-employed. This arose in a case brought to my attention involving hauliers. They were originally employees of Roadstone but then became owner-drivers. They had an agreement with Roadstone but they have now discovered that Roadstone is directly employing drivers from eastern European countries. The original employees of Roadstone, who are now owner-drivers, are getting less work from Roadstone.

When we examined this issue we found that the owner-drivers, even though they are members of trade unions, cannot have their trade union negotiate on their behalf with the company. This leaves them at a severe disadvantage. This issue must be addressed because it is another means to abuse workers. It can be used to displace people from their employment. These people have a difficulty asserting their rights, particularly through trade union membership. On the one hand they are allowed to be trade union members but they cannot negotiate with the company as members of that trade union. This must be addressed through legislation. It is a problem we have identified in our policy document.

When the Labour Party leader, Deputy Rabbitte, raised these issues, the first people to criticise him were economists. The economists concerned spoke about the economy and the importance of growth. Those things are important but they are not the ultimate objective. They are the means to a better society. The economy is there to serve society, whether it is people who have immigrated to this country or natives of this country. That is where our immigration system should be pitched. Obviously, we must encourage growth and improve our economy but the purpose of that is to look after our people properly, be they immigrants or natives, and to provide a good quality of life.

That is how we must think about our system. So far, our system has been focused on the employer and the economy but we are not thinking of those we should be thinking of, that is, people in our society. We should introduce a comprehensive immigration system based on the positive ideas I have proposed. It has been done in other countries, such as the United States. I do not claim their system is perfect but we have much to learn from it. There is no point labelling a work permit system as a green card system. What is needed is a proper green card system and a comprehensive immigration policy.