Legislation is being prepared to regulate the employment agency sector, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher has told the Dáil.
He said that the final elements of proposals for the draft scheme of a Bill would be presented for consideration by the Government shortly.
"The Bill as drafted will reflect the commitment in Towards 2016 to a licensing system where, to be licensed, employment agencies will be required to comply with the terms of a statutory code of practice which will set out the practices and standards which employment agencies are expected to follow," he said.
Mr Kelleher said it was envisaged that a monitoring and advisory committee would advise on the code and on other matters related to this sector of the economy. It would include representatives of the social partners, he added.
Mr Kelleher said that Ireland considered the proposals in the EU directive on temporary agency work were somewhat imbalanced.
"We have concerns about exemptions, or derogations, which would be to the benefit or advantage of some member states and not others," he added.
Mr Kelleher was speaking during a debate on a Labour-Sinn Féin private members' motion calling on the Government to protect the rights of agency workers and introduce the EU directive. It is the first time that the two parties have come together to table a motion.
Labour spokesman on enterprise and employment Willie Penrose said that, for years, trade unions across the EU had been engaged in an ongoing campaign for equal treatment in pay, conditions and status for all "atypical" workers. "But, unbelievably, our Government, and by extension our country, is a 'laggard' in this important area of employment standards and conditions.
"Increasingly, agency working means discrimination in the workplace and poorer pay, denial of sick, holiday and overtime pay, and a way for employers to avoid many of their responsibilities," he added.
In Belgium, said Mr Penrose, agency workers must be paid the same and be given the same terms and conditions as permanent workers, while in Spain, the law was modified in 1999 to ensure pay parity with that of the collective agreement of the sector to which the agency worker was assigned.
In Portugal, he added, the law established pay and conditions parity with permanent workers, while in Greece, an agency worker's pay must not be lower than that set by the relevant collective agreement within the employment agency.
The EU directive on temporary agency work has the stated objective of providing the minimum level of protection for temporary agency workers.
Sinn Féin labour affairs spokesman Arthur Morgan described the absence of adequate legislation to protect agency workers as "a cancer in the Irish labour market".
He warned that if the issue was not tackled, exploitation would spread "aggressively and invasively" through all workplaces and sectors.
Mr Morgan said that agency workers were being denied entitlements such as sick pay, holiday pay and overtime.
An increasing number of new jobs were temporary and were being filled by agency workers, he added.
Debate on the motion resumes tonight.
