A multinational construction company was accused in the Dáil of "master fraud", "grand larceny" and "corporate criminality" over pay rates to Turkish workers on Irish construction sites, amounting to millions.
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins (Dublin West) made the accusations as a report by the labour inspectorate into the international company Gama Construction was due to be made available to Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mícheál Martin.
Mr Higgins said that Gama construction combined "the most advanced technology with the most primitive techniques of worker exploitation", through slave wages.
He added that the company was exempt from income tax because of an agreement with Tánaiste Mary Harney and the Revenue Commissioners.
"Apart from the slave-wage rates, that agreement gives the company a hugely competitive edge over other construction companies that pay trade-union rates. This is the most severe corporate criminality."
Mr Higgins raised the issue during leaders' questions with the Tánaiste, who said that if the allegations were true then "all the forces of the State will have to be brought to bear on this issue to ensure it cannot recur".
Mr Martin would have to take legal advice about whether the inspectorate's report could be published but he would also bring the report to the attention of the Revenue Commissioners and the director of corporate enforcement. Ms Harney added that a draft of the inspectorate's report had been circulated "in the interests of natural justice".
Mr Higgins demanded that the Garda fraud squad examine the accounts "forensically" to see exactly how "this fraud was perpetrated".
The Department of Enterprise inspectorate began an investigation into pay practices by the company following a complaint by Mr Higgins, who yesterday held up payslips and bank statements of Turkish workers.
Referring to one worker, he said the minimum pay rate was €12.96 an hour but this employee worked 330 hours one month - more than 80 hours a week - and got less than €1,000 when he should have received at least €4,200.
His Turkish bank account statement showed he received less than €250 a month to spend in Ireland and the remainder, less than €1,000, was paid to an account in Turkey.
"When the investigation began, the Turkish workers were coached, under severe duress, to say the money went to accounts in their names in Finansbank in Holland. They had to be coached because no worker knows, or knew" that they had such accounts, he said.
"What we have is a master fraud by a major entity in the construction scene in this country, a grand larceny of workers' wages amounting to millions of euro each month."
Ms Harney said that Irish law "gives equal protection to foreign and Irish workers". She added that, if the allegations stood up and she had no reason to doubt Mr Higgins's information, "it will be a disgrace that any workers could be treated and exploited in that fashion".
Ms Harney said Mr Martin had already given work permits to some of the workers in the company so they could seek work from alternative employers.
Mr Higgins demanded that trade-union rates be paid immediately to all workers, and all back money should be paid.
