Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 181: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if, in regard to his announcement of the recruitment of an additional 11 labour inspectors, the number that have been appointed to date; when the full number will be appointed; if they will be concentrated on any particular area of work; the current ratio between the number of labour inspectors and the total numbers in the workforce; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25424/05]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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In January 2005 the complement of labour inspectors was 17 officers. When all currently sanctioned posts are filled there will be 31 officers assigned to labour inspector posts. A selection interview process was undertaken following the announcement of additional labour inspectorate posts earlier this year. Arising from that process four officers were appointed. A second round of interviews is underway at present to identify suitable personnel to fill the remaining vacancies. The interviewing process has commenced at the earliest opportunity following the summer annual leave cycle and will be completed by the end of the month. It is intended that these assignments will be completed by the end of October this year.

The strengthened inspectorate will concentrate on those sectors of the economy where workers tend to be more vulnerable to suffering the effects of non-compliance with employment legislation. It is these sectors also that appear to have high concentrations of non-national workers.

Regarding the ratio of labour inspectors to the total numbers in the workforce — employment indicators show that there are approximately 2 million persons, representing all strata of economic activity, in work, at present. It should be noted that there is a wide corpus of employment rights legislation administered by various State organisations and services. These include the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the redundancy and insolvency sections of this Department, the rights commissioner service provided by the Labour Relations Commission and the services provided by the Labour Court. The labour inspectorate is a unit within the employment rights compliance section which also includes the employment rights information unit and a further separate unit that administers the referral of cases for prosecution and legal enforcement of orders. Between them these various services have a complement of staff in excess of 140 people.