Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am sorry I missed the start of Mr. Fleming's presentation. While he might have covered this earlier, I ask him to describe the employers involved. Are they big multinationals, small individually owned ships or a mixture of both? I know some trawler owners who employ labour, usually from eastern Europe. Sometimes I think that how they are treated leaves much to be desired.

I want to make a wider political point about the modern-day workplace. Irrespective of whether it is on sea or on the building site, there is huge abuse of workers. The definitions of a worker and workers' rights are rapidly changing and we are not dealing with it. There is bogus self-employment in the construction industry at the moment. The crane drivers are taking action because of the bogus self-employment contracts under which they are forced to work. They get no protection, holidays or sick pay. There is no legislative protection or minimum wage. This is going on everywhere.

However, there is another element to this that ties into a wider debate we need to have here and across Europe. The EU has a huge responsibility for it. It has led to a racist Europe. It has blocked migrants from getting away from very dangerous situations and has not let them into Europe with a level of decency. They are usually black and from places such as Egypt or Somalia. They are drowning by the tens of thousands in the Mediterranean and being treated disgracefully by a fortress Europe. If that does not indicate that the fish rots from the head - pardon the pun - then what does? The EU is supposed to give a lead in how we deal with human beings.

I agree with Mr. Fleming's description of it as modern-day slavery. Those sorts of conditions are modern-day slavery. Slavery is only acceptable when one set of human beings is seen as a lesser form than another. When they are treated as lesser people by allowing them to drown in the Mediterranean, when they are not allowed into EU countries and are put in camps when they get here, when we confine them to the torture of direct provision and do not allow them the right to work and keep them on a pittance in a place like Mosney, then we are sending out a signal that these are lesser human beings and the employers pick up on that signal. The employers then exploit the fact that at sea beyond the 12-mile zone, no particular country has responsibility apart from the country whose flag the vessel bears and that flag can be changed.

The whole nine yards is at play here. However, we immediately need investment in inspectors that will take this on and will check out boats as Mr. Fleming said. While they may not be able to raid boats and be invisible - they are not the Marines after all - there are many ways to skin a cat and there are many ways they could find out. While I stand to be corrected on this, I believe we have more dog wardens in the country than labour inspectors. That goes to the heart of how we treat workers, particularly migrant workers, and more so if they are black and come from Africa or the Middle East.

There are a number of issues at play. If this Department has any concern, it should look immediately at the level of employment inspectors. It needs a strategy to find out what is going on, document it and go after those who are breaching employment law. Given the previous role of the new Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the Department of Justice and Equality, I wold have thought she would have considerable experience in this. I am not sure if she has the correct kind of experience. It is a pity she is not here. When she next appears before the committee, she might have something more to add to the discourse because a huge amount is at stake here.