Mr. Ken Fleming:

It is surviving on it. I have said that if it has to survive on slavery, it should go. The political will is with the Marine Survey Office. It is not only protecting the fishing industry. The Irish-flagged merchant ships, which number quite a few, are all in the same boat as they are carrying non-EU and EU crew members from eastern Europe on board their vessels who are not getting within an ass's roar of the national minimum wage. This is big, but I know from my experience that this is much bigger. It is a political bomb that they have not been prepared to touch for years. My predecessor was lobbying in 2001 over abuse on the merchant side. We have an example in Southampton where we caught an Irish-flagged vessel owned in Ireland and it is still floating around with Filipinos being paid $1,200 a month even though the Marine Survey Office and NERA have accepted we were right but have done nothing about it. It is huge.