The Labour Party is examining British legislation on forced labour with a view to preparing a specific law to criminalise offending employers in Ireland.
Labour TD Joe Costello said that the party was examining legislation passed in the United Kingdom in 2009 that makes it an offence to hold a person in slavery or subject them to forced labour.
"The Labour Party has passed it to our legal advisors with a view to preparing legislation to deal with the loopholes in the present system," Mr Costello said.
Around 20 members of Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MCRI) today held a protest outside the Dáil to mark International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, which was addressed by TDs Robert Dowds and Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, the latter of who described the issue as "effective slavery".
Gráinne O'Toole, workplace and project leader, said that over the past six years, the MRCI had dealt with 160 cases of forced labour in Ireland but said this was "the tip of the iceberg".
She said that that the 2009 British legislation had brought the United Kingdom in line with the European Convention on Human Rights, but that no such standalone criminal offence relating to forced labour existed in Ireland.
"We are actually breaching European law and international law by not having legal provision or a law against forced labour," Ms O'Toole said.
She added that although Ireland had progressive employment laws,stricter enforcement was also needed to ensure that those who received awards under employment legislation actually received monies awarded to them.