A leadership unable to show the way

Once again an Irish Government has shown itself happier to follow than to lead. This time the issue is the abuse by certain unscrupulous employers of immigrant labour. It emerged this week that the vulnerable workers are paid less than their Irish colleagues and are then being overcharged for accommodation, among other abuses. These, remember, are the very workers we are told Ireland needs to sustain its current economic boom. Quite what their compatriots will make of some of the stories that this week emerged remains to be seen.

The State should have done more to protect these vulnerable workers; that is precisely why the State exists. But, in the absence of a pro-active Government campaign of respect for our labour laws as they apply to immigrant labour, self-interest alone should propel the business lobby groups to clamp down on the cowboys in their midst.