Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In this area we must provide legal protections that are general in their application. Not all agency workers are low paid - some agency workers are quite highly paid and in some professions working through an agency gives higher pay. As Senator Healy Eames rightly says, some agency workers are vulnerable to being treated very badly. That is why we passed legislation in 2012, which I brought through the House, requiring equal treatment in relation to pay and basic working and employment conditions. That is in effect since 5 December 2011. It requires that people who are brought in through an agency on a temporary basis be treated identically to the full-time staff of the same company.