Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 222: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation following Ireland's application to become a member of the Human Rights Council and the Irish tripartite adoption of the United Nations' International Labour Organisation in June 2011, if it is his intention to ratify the ILO convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers 2012 and by doing so demonstrate his commitment to protecting human rights and decent work for all. [12244/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the successful outcome of discussions at the International Labour Conference (ILC) that lead to the adoption of a new International labour standard aimed at ensuring Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The final text of the draft Convention was one that the Irish Government was in a position to support and the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers now becomes ILO Convention No. 189 supplemented by a Recommendation.

The issue of ratification by Ireland of this Convention is being considered in the context of our standard approach to the ratification of international instruments. In this regard, the Convention will be examined from the perspective of any changes that may be required to existing domestic legislation. However, it is important to note that domestic workers are protected by virtue of the fact that the full suite of employment rights legislation, including that of redress for violations of their employment rights, apply to domestic workers in the same way as they apply to other categories of employees in Ireland.

A voluntary Code of Practice for Persons Employed in Other People's Homes was developed under the Industrial Relations Act 1990. The Code sets out certain employment rights and practices for persons employed in other people's homes and encourages good practice and compliance with the law in such employment situations. In any proceedings before a court, or a workplace relations dispute resolution body, a code of practice shall be admissible in evidence and any provision of the code which appears to the court, body or officer concerned to be relevant to any question arising in the proceedings shall be taken into account in determining that question.

It is also worth pointing out that NERA has been carrying out an on-going pilot programme of inspections involving domestic workers. In general, cooperation levels among employers of domestic workers was high and compliance levels were on a par with other employer/employee relationships.