Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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292. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation further to Parliamentary Question No. 308 of 8 March 2017, the number of workplace inspections and total amount of wages recovered in 2016 for the child care sector alone; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14395/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is an independent, statutory body established on 1 October 2015 under the Workplace Relations Act 2015. The WRC has responsibility for information provision, workplace advice, mediation, conciliation, adjudication, inspection and enforcement in relation to employment rights, equality and equal status matters and industrial relations.

Inspectors of the WRC carry out inspections of employer records with a view to determining compliance with employment rights and employment permits legislation. These inspections arise:

- In response to complaints received of alleged non-compliance with relevant employment rights legislation;

- As part of compliance campaigns which focus on compliance in specific sectors or specific pieces of legislation, or

- As routine inspections, which act as a control measure.

The WRC’s aim is to achieve voluntary compliance with employment law through the provision of education and awareness, inspection of employers’ employment records and enforcement where necessary.

The Deputy will be aware from my previous reply that in 2016 the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) recovered a total of €1,521,600 in unpaid wages in 4,830 cases.

Details in relation to the number of workplace inspections undertaken by the WRC in 2016 in the childcare sector alone are not available as employers engaged in childcare related activities are included with the health and nursing sectors for statistical purposes. In addition, inspections of employers of domestics workers may include some childcare cases but these childcare cases are not identified separately. The overall numbers for the year 2016 are as follows :