Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Brien for that response.

In his opening statement Mr. Kelly referenced that to date, 20 prosecutions have been brought against fishing vessel owners relating to offences under employment legislation. That is in the context of 170 vessels. I am interested to hear about repeat offenders. Mr. O’Brien outlined that the provision that exists for repeat offenders to be barred from the scheme has never been used. Any decent employer in the fishing industry would want the scheme to work and would show solidarity with those migrant workers. However, there is very little incentive to be a decent employer in this area if one is getting undercut all the time by employers who are not paying the proper rate. Of the 20 prosecutions, do they relate to the same 20 people? Twenty prosecutions in the context of 170 vessels represents 12%, which is unacceptably high. Do the prosecutions involve the same people, and if they do, why are those people allowed access to a scheme, which, essentially, is a pipeline of cheap labour for them to exploit? I am struggling to understand, if there are repeat offenders, why they have not been barred from scheme. Mr. Kelly might be able to explain that to me.