Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. My first question for Mr. Liam Kelly. Is there an EU standard in this area? Some of the procedures outlined by Mr. O'Brien were surprising. Is there an EU standard regarding a permit being tied to an individual vessel? I refer as well to redress being so difficult where a contract is illegal, the issue of yellow-carding people who have used a permit scheme but then abused it and the six-month statute of limitations or "cognisable period" as it is called. Are those procedures part of European standards or are we free to modify some of those aspects? I ask that because there does seem to be a legislative bias here against proper enforcement of the rules.

My second question concerns when a permit is issued. I presume an employee and an employer are involved in that regard. Would that not be the time to have the big push in respect of the interpretation of what rights the employee has in that context? Might there also be an opportunity in that regard to have a provision for some sort of compliance statement to be provided by either or both of the parties involved 12 months later in respect of what has been happening regarding the conditions of the permit? Can we make better use of that moment to ensure that people have better access to the enforcement system?