Here’s an interesting article from RTE.ie about the Migrants Rights Centre calling for statutory guidelines for the au pair industry. It contains some startling figures, research they did showed 36% of Au Pairs reported being exploited, 42% had no written contract and 30% reported not getting any holidays.
You can read the MRCI report here http://www.mrci.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/PartofTheFamily.pdf