Sinn Féin spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Maurice Quinlivan TD said the state's house building programme should be viewed as an opportunity to revitalise the Irish construction sector.
Mr Quinlivan said: "Apparently it's hoped construction firms from Poland to Latvia and from Spain to Italy will achieve maximum budgetary efficiency in the delivery of housing and promote competition and cost savings.
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"This worries me as our track record in terms of protecting workers' rights on large scale capital projects is not good.
"It also strikes me as odd that one day we have the Minister for the Diaspora Joe McHugh telling us it is not practical to encourage emigrants to return while economic issues persist, yet the following day the media reports that foreign construction firms are to be invited to apply for large public procurement projects."
Mr Quinlivan called on both the Minister for Jobs and the Minister Public Expenditure to introduce "stringent social clauses".
He said: "It is not acceptable for construction workers in Ireland to be displaced by cheap labour that is brought in specifically to reduce overall project costs.
"Thousands of construction workers are now categorised as long-term unemployed while others had no choice but to emigrate."
(CD)
