Ms Edel McGinley:

I thank the Chairman and members for inviting us to discuss the atypical work permit scheme for non-EEA fishermen and exploitation in the fishing industry as it relates to this committee and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Our statement focuses on the roll-out of the scheme, the problems we have encountered with the scheme and data from a survey we carried out in recent months which involved in-depth interviews with a number of fishermen. Ms Ryan will discuss that.

The MRCI is a non-governmental organisation. We work predominantly with migrant workers in low-wage sectors of the economy. We come to this issue through the intersection of immigration and employment, and it is something on which have worked for many years in terms of how people become undocumented in the State. We have worked with fishermen for approximately three years, but our drop-in centre deals with up to 2,000 people a year in the context of issues relating to immigration, exploitation and employment rights.

This issue came to light through an expose in the The Guardianin 2015. As a result, the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, set up a task force to examine it. Senator Gerald Nash worked on the enforcement element. Following that, the Department of Justice and Equality set up an atypical scheme for fishermen which created a number of problems in terms of access to and retaining immigration status once granted.

I will hand over to Ms Ryan, who will take the committee through some of our research and preliminary findings. I will then discuss our recommendations.