The HSE and the Equality Authority are carrying out separate investigations into allegations of exploitation in sheltered workshops for people with intellectual disabilities. Kitty Hollandreports.
The Irish Times has established that people with learning disabilities were being paid as little as €5 a week for full-time work at sheltered workshops and some were being paid nothing at all.
One intellectually disabled man, aged 46, who is doing sheltered work in a hospital as a carer's assistant, is being paid nothing.
"Of course I'd like some money," he said, "but they told me I'm doing voluntary work. It is tiring work but otherwise I'd have nothing to do."
Concerns about the legal implications of such arrangements, where profitable workshops are being effectively "staffed" by workers on rates far below the minimum wage have prompted a far-reaching review by the HSE.
The report's terms of reference have been seen by The Irish Times.
More than 4,000 people with intellectual disabilities are working in sheltered workshops doing such work as shrink-wrapping two-for-one offers for supermarkets, putting inserts into mail shots or making cardboard boxes.
Meanwhile, the Equality Authority has also confirmed it is investigating "a number" of alleged breaches of the Employment Equality Act in cases concerning people with intellectual disabilities in sheltered workshops. If these cases are successful it is thought thousands more could follow.
A working group appointed by the HSE is being chaired by the director of health services in the Cavan/Monaghan region, Leo Kinsella.
It has had one full meeting, earlier this month, and plans to conclude its review by May 2008.
According to a memo from Mr Kinsella, to all members of the group, an initial "scoping" has confirmed "established practice that sheltered work is being carried out as part of day services in intellectual disability and mental health settings, and from which an income is generated by the organisations, but for which clients do not get appropriate pay".
It says workers in the workshops "do not enjoy employment rights" and also speaks of "significant variation in the capitation rate being paid to agencies including concerns that there may be 'double funding' ".
The workshop system, which began to emerge in the 1950s, remains unregulated and has been described by the National Rehabilitation Board as an "ad-hoc system" to respond to the needs of people with disabilities who cannot find employment in the open labour market.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has argued that workers in workshops should not be excluded from employment rights.