Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank the WRC, Mr. O'Brien and the ITF. I refer to the Maynooth study and thank the researchers for doing it. The headline findings were that over two thirds of the participants observed they could work between 15 and 20 hours per day. One third reported feeling safe on the vessel, so two thirds did not feel safe. Over half of the participants had been subjected to racial and verbal abuse. On the point Senator Crowe made, all but two of the interviewees who had been in Ireland since before 2016 indicated that conditions in the sector had worsened overall since that time. We cannot say it is the first time we have heard about the horrific conditions that exist for undocumented migrant fishers in Ireland. There has been a criminal failure by the State to stand up for these workers' rights. To get a sense of how widespread the problem is, how many undocumented fishers does Mr. O'Brien estimate work in the sector in Ireland?