Mr. Michael O'Brien:

It is a combination of all of the above. I have identified gaps in the legislation that impede the International Transport Workers Federation, as well as unions like SIPTU, which also take fisher cases, from obtaining full wage recovery.

On international comparisons, I am not greatly familiar with the regimes in every country. In Scotland, a similar situation prevails but the UK system has a standard contract that provides for £1,200 per month. Once they are beyond the 13-mile limit anything goes, so the situation is quite grave there. I will attend a meeting of the ITF's European affiliates that organise the fishing sector on 15 November in person in Brussels so I will get greater detail in terms of how we stand up compared to others. There are issues in terms of the structure of the fishing industry here and the species fished. That lends itself to proportionally more migrants from outside of Europe being brought into the industry than in continental Europe.