Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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That is very good advice and I was aware of it because I live in a small fishing community. The full moon does things to prawns, although I do not know what. There was a submission from Mr. O'Brien and the ITF to the committee and it references the penalties applied, arguing they are not dissuasive enough to prevent repeat offending by some vessel owners. I stress it is a small number of vessel owners but these are the people who give the industry a bad reputation. The decent employers are getting lashed by that bad reputation as well, which is unfair. It is in everyone's interest to stamp this out.

The reference was to penalties not being dissuasive enough to prevent repeat offending. Reporting people for abuse of the scheme to the Department of Justice might be a good way to start. What is Mr. Kelly's view on the penalties available and whether they need to be increased or different? How can we deal with the question of repeat offending? It strikes me there are thousands of fishing vessels around the coast and there is a small number of rogue employers. We should be dealing with them.

Therefore, the penalties must be dissuasive enough in order that the employers who want to do the decent thing are not competing on an unequal playing field.