Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome, as always. The current employment permits system is designed to enable appropriately skilled non-EEA migrants to fill vacancies that cannot be filled from within the State. I appreciate that this Bill is challenging, technical and lengthy, and I also appreciate the engagement the Minister of State and his officials have had with the office of my colleague, Deputy Louise O'Reilly, to date. Our employment permits legislation does need modernising and Sinn Féin wants to see legislation that improves the system. Where there are shortages of necessary skills in our economy, of course we should use employment permits fairly and sensibly. We would like to see a much more considerable effort on the part of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, working with the Departments of education and higher education and doing more to equip students with critical skills where we have skills shortages. We should be developing skilled workers through our secondary and third level education systems. More important, there needs to be an improvement in pay and conditions where skill shortages exist.

We still have some concerns about the approach the Government has taken in this Bill. Those concerns are mostly related to the need to protect workers' rights. There are some positive elements in the Bill that will improve the current system, such as index-linking wage thresholds to keep in line with salary growth; providing additional conditions for the granting of employment permits, such as training or accommodation supports for migrant workers in some circumstances; and making innovation or upskilling a condition of grant where this may decrease future reliance on economic migration. Sinn Féin welcomes all these positive aspects.

A few issues with the Bill were highlighted by my colleague, Deputy Louise O'Reilly, during the various Stages in the Dáil. Also, several concerns were raised by the enterprise, trade and employment committee. The committee was shown evidence that, in some cases, the employment rights of workers under the permits system, including in respect of their level of pay and conditions of employment, are not observed or enforced. The Minister of State and I had a good conversation just last week in this regard, and we both agree on the need for additional workplace inspectors, but it would be good to hear when progress will be made. This is key. We want to see the issues addressed properly.

Unfortunately, we will struggle to support legislation that leaves open the possibility of an exploitative employment model in certain economic sectors through the introduction of seasonal employment permits. Such a model is neither an ethical nor a sustainable solution for the sectors concerned. What the sectors and the workers therein need are decent pay and conditions and a right to collective bargaining. As I have highlighted in this Chamber many times, Ireland is an outlier in Europe when it comes to recognising the right to collective bargaining. If we want to future-proof our economy, we must make hard work pay. We can attract workers to struggling sectors that have low pay and poor conditions only by making sure all current and future workers in these sectors are afforded decent pay and conditions. What is also needed is progressive legislation that supports and protects migrant workers and also benefits the economy.

I acknowledge the input and work of Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, which does brilliant work highlighting the issues concerning migrant workers. Some of our concerns have been addressed. I thank the Minister of State and the officials for the engagement so far but we are still at odds regarding seasonal employment permits. In this regard, we will table amendments on Committee Stage.