Mr. Dermot Conway:

Okay. The second point I would make is that there is a big distinction, which would require clarification, between someone being asked for a letter and not having it but having a visa to be within the State. We are talking about a trawler of some description. It is not someone's office. It is not the same as my office. It is not the same as a human resources, HR, department in Tesco. Not every piece of paper that is required to be in an office is necessarily on a trawler. That is the first comment I would make, and it is something that would have to be clarified. In my experience of dealing with the visa issue, there has been a huge take-up of visas by owners who are engaging these non-EEA people. The numbers the Senator is quoting are from inspections by a naval vessel and I would be much more interested in hearing what the WRC has to say because if it carries out an inspection, it can require, under legislation, the owner-operator of that vessel to supply the information at a later date if the owner-operator does not have that information on the day of the inspection.

Regarding the WRC statistics about no documentation whatsoever, the WRC breakdown of the numbers I have seen ranges from payslips to not having the contracts of employment, to not having the actual authorisations on the boat on the day of the inspection. It is a range of documentation which goes above and beyond the actual authorisation itself. That is something that needs to be clarified because it is not appropriate to say that 70 boats had zero paperwork towards these authorisations. What is factually clear from the statistics that were released by the WRC is that there are five prosecutions taking place, and that was after it could not get the owner-operator to co-operate or supply what had been demanded of them by way of legislation. It is five, not 70.

In regard to the trafficking cases that are taking place, I have not seen a single statistic issued by anyone as to the number of cases that have commenced. Senator Reilly has given a number of seven. Senator Gavan has given a number of 19 and the number of 13 was bandied around a minute ago also.