The Construction Industry Federation has called on the Government to appoint an independent regulator to monitor agencies involved in bringing foreign workers into the country.
The CIF said that over the remaining five years of the National Development Plan, the industry would need 80,000 workers, some 20,000 of whom would come from abroad.
It said that while the Department of Enterprise and Employment had improved the arrangements for dealing with work permits and visas, a 'fair and transparent' overview was now essential to ensure that issues such as racism and discrimination were avoided.
The Director General of the CIF, Liam Kelleher, said that his members wanted to see see structures put in place, which would ensure emigrant workers were not exploited and that they received the same rates of pay as Irish workers.
Mr Kelleher said foreign workers, one they arrive in this country, are often at the mercy of some placement agents.
