Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 440: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the ratio of labour inspectors to workforce in each of the past ten years. [10861/06]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The ratio of the number of labour inspectors to the workforce in each of the past ten years is set out in the following tabular statement, which shows a marked improvement in the ratio of labour inspectors over the past ten years from one inspector for every 150,000 people at work in 1996 to one for every 67,000 at work in 2005. This took place against an increase of over 500,000 in the workforce in the same period.

It should be noted that there is a wide range of employment rights bodies and services. These include the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the redundancy and insolvency sections of this Department, the rights commissioner services provided by the Labour Relations Commission and the services provided by the Labour Court. The labour inspectorate is, itself, 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 150 people.

It is anticipated that the new round of social partnership talks will embrace consideration of the resourcing of the labour inspectorate and options to enhance the effectiveness of our employment rights compliance regime.