Worker exploitation - Job standards must be addressed

The issue of whether unscrupulous employers are taking advantage of foreign labour, to the detriment of Irish workers, may have been a matter of public perception up to now.

But politicians were yesterday presented with what those bearing it claimed was proof.

It came from the Cork Building Group (CBG), which represents 20,000 members in various trades in the Munster region and consisted of wage slips that they say substantiate their claims of exploitation. What the CBG produced to a cross-party delegation of national and local politicians is disturbing because it is palpable evidence that the problem does exist - a smoking gun.