Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the steps he will take to prevent the exploitation of domestic workers, particularly migrant workers in such positions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2636/11]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland's body of employment rights legislation protects all workers employed on an employer-employee basis in Ireland. The Protection of Employee's (Part-Time) Work Act, 2001 provides that all employee protection legislation applies to a person, irrespective of his or her nationality or place of residence, who has entered into a contract of employment that provides for his or her being employed in the State or who works in the State under a contract of employment.

NERA collects information from a number of sources in order to identify the location of domestic workers. NERA also investigates complaints received. NERA provides information through a variety of channels including –

· Information booklets and leaflets in a number of languages · NERA's website - www.employmentrights.ie - had over 286,000 visits in last 12 months with 1.3m pages accessed.

· A 24-hour telephone service, with options to hear recorded information at a convenient time.

· Through NERA inspections.

· NERA's participation in events with trade unions ,employer and educational bodies and many others including those in the public sector.

· NERA's holding of its own information clinics in 2011

· A member of NERA management acting as liaison officer with the Migrants Rights Centre of Ireland.

· 9 NERA inspectors having specific language skills in Polish, Slovakian, Lithuanian and Russian.

· NERA drawing on interpretative resources as required.

There is a Code of Practice for Protecting Persons Employed in Other People's Homes as set out in Section 42 of the Industrial Relations Act 1990. The code seeks to

· Set out certain employment rights and protections for persons employed in other people's homes; and

· Encourage good practice and compliance with the law concerning the employment of persons in other people's homes; and

· Increase awareness of the application of relevant legislation and codes of practice with regard to the sector to which this code applies.

NERA Inspectors may only enter a private home with the consent of the occupier or by warrant of the District Court. It can, but has never found it necessary to, apply to the District Court for a warrant (not a search warrant) to enter a private home to examine records. Such warrants may only be issued if a judge of the District Court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that information required by an Inspector is held on any premises or any part of premises. In 2011, NERA will undertake a programme to assess the level of compliance in the domestic worker sector. Part of this programme will be the provision of information to both employers and employees.

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 94: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation his plans to publish legislation to amend the Competition Acts to uphold the right of certain freelance workers such as actors and musicians to collective bargaining, which was promised as part of the review of the Towards 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2526/11]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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"Towards 2016" contains a Government commitment to introduce amending legislation to exclude voice-over actors, freelance journalists and session musicians when engaging in collective bargaining, from the provisions of Section 4 of the Competition Act 2002. The commitment takes into account, inter alia, that there would be negligible negative impacts on the economy or on the level of competition, and would have regard to the specific attributes and nature of the work involved, and be subject to consistency with EU competition rules.

I intend, subject to consistency with EU competition law and the commitment set out in the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government and the EU/IMF Programme for Financial Support for Ireland, to give effect to this commitment in the legislation currently being prepared to merge the National Consumer Agency and the Competition Authority. This legislation will also amend, reform and update certain provisions of existing competition and consumer law. I hope to publish the Bill during the course of 2011.