Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think the WRC is doing extremely good work. From the information that I have given the committee one can see the amount of progress it has made in dealing with complaints in a more timely way, conducting inspections out of the 2,000 plus inspections that are conducted in the workplace. As a result, 1,000 employers have been found to be in breach.

The Senator mentioned the fishing sector. Let us consider what the WRC has done in that area. Since it published its report in 2017, it has signed a memorandum of understanding, MOU, with other areas to support co-operation in terms of enforcement and information sharing. I think that is very good. It has also conducted an information and education campaign in the whitefish sector. It has engaged with industry stakeholders to enhance compliance, training ten WRC inspectors at the National Fisheries Training College for deployment on fisheries inspection. It has undertaken more than 200 inspections on the whitefish fleet involving 176 whitefish vessels over 15 m in length. It has detected almost 200 contraventions relating to 110 vessels to the end of June 2017 and initiated five prosecutions where compliance by other means was not secured. One can see very active work by the WRC in an area. I agree with the Senator that what emerged was absolutely unacceptable but action has been taken. The Department of Justice and Equality has also taken various actions in terms of some of the abuses. As the Senator will know, visa criteria were changed in terms of the fishing industry. The WRC is very actively involved in the particular area mentioned by the Senator.