Officially opened by the Minister for Labour Affairs, Tony Killeen TD, and with Graphite HRM managing director Simon McRory as chairman, the speakers included: John Beggs, chief economist with AIB; Esther Lynch of ICTU; Mark Fielding, CEO of ISME; Senator Margaret Cox, managing director of ICE Group; and Patrick O'Leary of the Equality Authority.

At the conference, entitled How Do You Measure Up? , the NRF , , a voluntary organisation set up to establish and maintain standards and codes of practice for the recruitment industry , , heard from speakers about the demands of employers, jobseekers, trade unions and the Equality Authority. In many cases, these demands appear to conflict with each other.

Frank Collins, president of the NRF, told the Sunday Tribune that the requirements for agencies to comply with the demands of often conflicting labour and other legislation is a big issue. "It can make it almost impossible for us to service the demands of our clients and candidates in the time and manner we want. In some cases it means that we have to ask candidates loads of questions which they might feel are irrelevant or intrusive, but if we don't ask them we could be in trouble with the Equality Authority."

Another problem is that sometimes agencies can't give answers to questions from candidates such as 'Am I an employee?'

"You may be for the purposes of social welfare, income tax or something else. We just don't know half the time, " admits Collins.

He is calling for the industry to work closer with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and social partners such as IBEC, ISME and ICTU until "there is a greater understanding of the needs and demands of the various sectors so we can come up with a way of operating that complies with the law and delivers the service that both clients and candidates deserve".