Ms Dearbhla Ryan:

There are a number of fishermen in the Gallery and another will follow. Committee members may be able to meet them after the meeting. We hoped a fisherman could speak directly to the committee. However, as the session is being broadcast, workers are reluctant to speak because there may be repercussions for their jobs.

I will discuss the context of the atypical permit scheme for the information of the committee. MRCI has monitored the scheme since its roll-out in February 2016. The permit was introduced to deal with a very particular segment of the fishing fleet in Ireland, namely, polyvalent, beamer and specific vessels over 15 m. There are approximately 179 boats in this category. The scheme gave undocumented fishermen from outside the EU a window of six months, from February to July 2016, to come forward and apply for work permits. The scheme relied on the employer and an employment contract to make a person eligible for the scheme. The scheme imposes a very limited 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 39-hour working week on this segment of the fishing industry. However, as I am sure the committee will understand, the industry does not operate within that framework. Many boats go out on trips for 12 days at time and might be back in harbour for a day or two before going back out for another 12 days. The hours specified in the permit do not fit the hours worked and the industry and fishermen are not being remunerated at the correct rates as a result.

This segment of the industry is marked by long hours, poor remuneration, breaches of employment legislation and disorganised enforcement. In fishing, no single body is tasked with enforcing employment legislation. Instead, the issue cuts across a number of bodies dealing with health and safety, the organisation of working time - including rest breaks - the payment of wages and the minimum wage. This means that much of the information is not combined by the different bodies responsible in order to establish a comprehensive picture of non-compliance and exploitation.

The committee may ask why workers do not take cases to the Workplace Relations Commission. The profile of workers can explain this. Many workers are from outside the EU, as we said, and do not have a sufficient level of English to complete the application process. Many do not know their rights and entitlements or how to exercise them. In addition, workers know employers are well networked and organised and fear that if they take a case against one employer, they will be marked as troublemakers and will be unable to get further work. This has happened to a number of fishermen with whom we have worked.

Fishing can be very isolated, as the committee can see from the hours involved and the areas where fishing is an industry. It is exhausting work. Fishermen have very little time off to seek support and meet organisations such as the MRCI and the ITF.

I will now discuss some preliminary research findings. We are in the process of doing research. We have already carried out 30 in-depth interviews with fishers, mostly from the Philippines and Egypt. As the research is still in progress, this is just preliminary evidence, but the full findings will be provided to the committee as soon as possible.

Regarding the profile of the respondents, 93.3% were employed at the time we surveyed them, that is, over the course of last year. At this time, 80% had a work permit, that is, an atypical work permit, and 41.2% had experienced discriminatory behaviour against them. This would be, for instance, migrant workers not receiving the same wage as Irish or white fishers, having to attend to the more difficult jobs than others on the boat and sometimes even having to stay back on the boat on shore to clean up after all the other crew members had left. Of the workers surveyed, 33% had experienced verbal or physical abuse or both. One worker stated that his employer shouts and swears at him and the crew daily, and on one occasion the employer began physically pulling and tugging at him. Of those surveyed, 44% had experienced personal injuries while at work. Such injuries included serious cuts and crushed limbs. One man received serious cuts but did not get medical attention until he went back onto land four days later. One worker became so ill that an air ambulance had to be called. When the ambulance arrived, the worker's employer denied that the sick man had worked for him. Regarding safety, 48% claim they do not feel safe at work. Their safety concerns are due often to the lack of rest breaks and days off. Consequently, the exhaustion makes them prone to work accidents. Another hazard is the lack of safety equipment on board some of the boats.

Our preliminary results reveal that exploitation and non-compliance are widespread within the sector. The rights conferred under Irish employment law are routinely breached. Most breaches occur under the National Minimum Wage Act, the Organisation of Working Time Act, the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts and the Payment of Wages Act. Of those we surveyed, 17.2% earned less than €300 per week, 65.4% were required to carry out extra duties without extra pay and 50% did not receive any holiday pay of any kind.

I will quote from one of our interviews.

We work constantly, around the clock, there are no official breaks. We bring food with us onto the boat that we can eat while we work. Crackers and crisps and other dry food we can have on the deck and eat while we sort fish. Sometimes we have to beg for a break or we sometimes sneak breaks while we go the toilet, quickly grab some food or a short lie down. There is a lot of tension on the boat, the skipper shouts and abuses us for not working hard enough. It's up to him who gets a break and when and it depends on his mood. The longest rest you will get is an hour or two. A lot of the time your sleep will only be 30 minutes long.

For context, in the fishing industry, 14 hours is the longest working day one is supposed to have in 24 hours, and one is supposed to work a maximum of 72 hours in one week.

Through our monitoring of the scheme, casework and preliminary research, it has become clear that the atypical scheme has not achieved what the Government set out to do, that is, to tackle exploitation in the industry and provide an avenue to document workers. In fact, some people are in a worse situation. Many did not find a willing employer during the six-month window to apply for a work permit, leaving them undocumented. As the first round of permits are up for renewal, we see many fishers let go as employers do not want to deal with the bureaucracy. This is leading to a casualisation of work whereby undocumented and documented fishers are taken on for trips at a time here and there without contracts or agreements.

One fisher wanted very much to speak today but he was very concerned about getting employment. He asked me to read a statement out, on which I will conclude.

First of all I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak for myself and my colleagues. We are all professional and skilled fishermen. Many of us come from coastal towns where generations of our families have been working in fishing. It is a very hard and difficult job. I have worked in many different boats in Ireland with bad conditions. In this work we only get a few hours' sleep per night on the boats. We fish for very long periods, sometimes over 20 days at a time. Many Skippers treat us migrant workers with disrespect and discrimination. We are not treated equally. There also are many health and safety issues on the boats. One man I know he was fishing and a wire cut off three of his fingers. The skipper called an ambulance for him and left him on the shore. The fisher lost his job and was given no support by his employer. When the employer reported on the accident he stated that it was the fisher's fault when really it was the Skipper who was not taking care of health and safety properly on the boat. Fishing will always be a very difficult job but we must have fair conditions and pay. When we are badly treated we must be able to stand up to employers and get justice. Everyone deserves to have a safe working environment and be fairly paid for their work.

Ms McGinley will now outline some of our recommendations very briefly.