Mr. Michael O'Brien:

I am really glad this question has been asked. Scores and scores of fishers I have been speaking to in the course of the year and who are undocumented are at the edge of their seats over this scheme because they feel it is a potential route to being documented, again, in some instances, or for the first time in a small number of cases. The Department of Justice is proposing a stamp 4 scheme which, if these fishers obtain it, will give them the freedom to move employers or even move out of fishing altogether. The problem is - there is immense anxiety among the fishers about this - the terms of the scheme as announced and of which we are yet to see the full details are that a person must be undocumented for four continuous years or three years in the case of a person having a child. The problem is many of the fishers we would like to be regularised out of the scheme do not quite fit that bill. They entered Ireland in a documented fashion but maybe two, three or four years ago fell out of the scheme and are currently undocumented but cannot point to being undocumented for four continuous years. The other issue concerns those who are actually in the atypical scheme, some of whom have been in the scheme since its inception and are therefore on their sixth atypical contract. They are asking me how it is fair that they are in their sixth year as an atypical fisher on a stamp 1 visa, tied to this employer who is not very nice to them and when they put in an application via a solicitor, as does happen, to the Department of Justice for a change of status to stamp 4, the Department always says "No" but yet, the fisher's crew-mate who has been undocumented for four years has a clear path to a stamp 4. Members can see how divisive it is.

I say this to the Government Senators and Deputies in particular. I ask them to please convey this to their colleagues and the Minister. There is a promise out there. Sorcha Pollak from The Irish Timesinterviewed me about this six weeks ago and the Department said the scheme would be "inclusive". The Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, said the other day in response to the Maynooth report that this documentation scheme may offer a path. I really hope so because this would be the mainstay of the ITF's work, alongside everything else, if this scheme is not inclusive and you have hundreds of undocumented fishers left in limbo-land and then scores of long-term atypical workers who are going to be, in their eyes, leapfrogged by people who have been undocumented while they are stuck in their exclusive relationship with abusive employers. This scheme has to be got right.