The State is committed to the prevention of exploitation of migrant workers through its legislation. All workers in Ireland have the full protection of Irish employment law, which reflects the wider EU social protection framework. The law prohibits discrimination between workers on nationality or other grounds. Section 20 of the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 also provides for the avoidance of doubt that all employee protection legislation on the Statute Book in the State 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; and works in the State under a contract of employment. Therefore, all employee protection legislation applies to migrant workers in Ireland.
As regards the latter part of the question, I assume the Deputy is referring the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Ireland has not yet signed and is not a party to this convention, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1990. The convention has been examined by my Department. It would appear that, in order for Ireland to ratify the convention, significant changes would have to be made across a wide range of existing legislation, including: legislation addressing authorisation to stay and to work; education, training and integration; family reunification; social security; transfer of income and taxation; housing; health and medical care; and electoral law. These changes would also have implications for our relations with our EU partners, none of which has signed or ratified the convention, or have signalled an intention to do so, and possibly for the operation of the common travel area between Ireland and the UK. We have no plans to introduce the changes in the foregoing areas, which would be necessary before Ireland could ratify or consider signing the convention.