David Norris (Independent)

I welcome most of the timely provisions in the Bill. I have raised as a humanitarian matter the plight of migrant workers. I remember seeing two unfortunate young Turkish lads in floods of tears on Butt Bridge. They had come to Ireland on the understanding they had jobs and work permits. When they arrived, they discovered they were defrauded and viciously exploited by Irish employers. Without enough money to get home, they were forced to live on credit and in hostels. The Minister will recall the plight of some Polish workers in Donegal, who were promised jobs by a local builder but who left them high and dry. I am glad traditional Irish hospitality came into play. The woman, in whose guesthouse they were staying, went on the airwaves outlining their cases and they managed to get other jobs.

These types of situations have not really gone away. I was horrified by the recent situation at Holles Street Hospital where nurses from the Philippines came to work on agreed contracts. Those contracts were welshed on and their employment conditions changed with a halving of their income. Some were bullied into accepting these changes. This is one of the principal medical institutions in the State. I am glad the master of the hospital has apologised for it.

I pay tribute to the work of Deputy Joe Higgins. Without his incisive intervention in the case of a group of Turkish workers in the construction industry, we still would have a difficult situation. Several of the issues clearly highlighted in that case, the proper keeping of records and the issuing of a work permit to the worker, are addressed in the Bill. It used to be the case that the employer had possession of the worker's work permit. The Bill provides for the employer or the employee to apply for the permit. Will the Minister explain why the employer should be included in this process? The permit should be the entitlement and the property of the individual worker.

The State retains an interest in the work permit and the right to have it returned. There is also some degree of a fee to be paid for it. I presume the €500 charge for the permit is cash up-front. That is a large sum of money for those workers coming from economically deprived areas, particularly when they must make other financial arrangements for accommodation and so forth. I assume the fee applies to those on lower wages who receive a work permit rather those on the green card. That introduces a class system for professionals such as doctors and those working at the cutting edge of science.

We are happy to take them and place them at an advantage because of our own requirements. That is acting clearly out of self interest, which is sometimes justifiable, but I am concerned about the creation of a two-tier system and class structure in what we are continually told is a classless republic in which all children of the nation are treated equally.

This is a new situation for people as long in the tooth as me. I remember when unemployment was the principal problem in this country. Senator Leyden referred to our visit to Kenya, where he visited many projects and I saw a few, and the situation in Nairobi is one of 80% unemployment. That was the level of unemployment in the area of Dublin I moved into during the late 1970s. It is horrifying but true that there was 85% unemployment in the north inner city. That is largely gone now and we are having difficulty filling jobs in key economic sectors and are looking abroad for workers.

This is an unusual situation that is positive in some ways but that also contains dangers. If we do not treat these people reasonably and decently, they will treat us in the same mercenary fashion we treat them and the minute they have made enough loot to buy a kiosk wherever they came from, they will leave and, very reasonably, feel they have no obligation to us and no reason to do other than leave us high and dry.

Once again there is a difference. The professional people are given immediate opportunities to reunite their families but those on the lower economic scale are not. I do not like that. I am an egalitarian and if we believe in the principle of family unity it should not be related to income unless there are good reasons. I cannot imagine what those reasons are and I do not think they can be simply economic because someone on €30,000, with the supports we have in this country, could afford to maintain a family.

Often in the case of nursing and medical staff, the spouse is also engaged in this line of work and could quite happily come here. I personally know a number of Filipino nurses and they are thoroughly disillusioned with this country. The Minister is a former Minister for Health and Children and will be aware of this fact. They have given extraordinary service in the health area, where the wages and conditions are not great, and often they are not given the facility to reunite with their families. This must be examined if we want these people to make their talents available.