Seanad report: Members of the public should refuse to buy mushrooms in supermarkets from suppliers who could not guarantee that pickers were treated properly, Brendan Ryan (Labour) said.
"I have been hearing about the treatment of migrant workers in that industry for far too long. Again we have people talking about being paid €5 an hour for a 60-hour week, seven days a week, and it being paid in cash, in envelopes without pay slips."
A defender of the industry had said on radio that the problem was that workers were not productive enough.
"So, in other words, if they are going to be paid their legal minimum wage, they are going to have to increase their productivity by another 40 per cent, which is an absolute nonsense," Mr Ryan asserted.
The point had also been made that in the last number of years supermarkets had forced down the price of mushrooms by 25 per cent. This meant that about six major supermarkets could between them sort this problem out by requiring their suppliers to guarantee that the people working for them were treated in accordance with the law.
"I want specifically and publicly to call on the Irish public to stop buying mushrooms in Irish supermarkets if they will not give that guarantee."
Many members of the House took very seriously the issue of fair trade around the world, said Mr Ryan. "But the place to start with fair trade is at home, and a basic principle of fair trade is that people should be employed now in accordance with the law.
"I cannot depend on the Department of Enterprise and Employment to protect these people's rights because it has failed appallingly over and over again to do so. Therefore, the only thing to do is appeal to the public, and I would appeal to members here to appeal to the public, to tell supermarkets 'if you can't guarantee that the people who produce this product are treated properly, then I won't buy it'."
Maurice Hayes (Ind) questioned the Government's proposals to restrict from the Irish labour force Bulgarian and Romanian nationals on the accession of those countries to the EU.
Calling for a debate on the proposals, Dr Hayes said: "At a time when we are protesting in America about quotas being applied to our own people, I think it sits badly with Ireland's traditions."
He appreciated that the matter of the common travel area with the UK had been raised. "It would affect me every day in the week, but I don't think the British proposals are very well thought-out either, nor can they be policed."