Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Government I acknowledge the presence of Mr. Younis in the Visitors Gallery. I thank each of the speakers who contributed so passionately to the debate on this Bill. I will outline some of the historical aspects of the Bill. On Friday, 31 August 2012, Mr. Justice Gerard Hogan of the High Court reversed a Labour Court award of ¤92,000 to Mr. Mohammad Younis, a Pakistani chef, despite finding that he may have been "the victim of the most appalling exploitation by his employer". The judge found that the contract of employment was illegal due to the fact that Mr. Younis did not have an employment permit. The judge noted that the Employment Permits Acts made it an offence for certain employees to work without an employment permit. The Acts do not provide for any defence for an employee, which suggested to the judge that he could not take into account any mitigating circumstances-----