Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The WRC, under the aegis of my Department, is one of several agencies that monitor the operation of the atypical worker permission scheme for non-EEA fishers employed on certain Irish-registered fishing vessels. I presume this is the scheme the Deputy is mainly referring to. The WRC has particular responsibility for checking compliance insofar as terms of employment, permission to work, payment of wages, annual leave, public holidays, and National Minimum Wage Act 2000 entitlements are concerned.

Hours of work and rest periods of fishers who work under a contract of employment or in an employment relationship on board Irish-registered fishing vessels are governed by the European Union (International Labour Organisation Work in Fishing Convention) (Working Hours) Regulations 2019 (SI No 672 of 2019), which are monitored by the Department of Transport. Marine surveyors of the Department of Transport are authorised officers for the purposes of the enforcement of these regulations and may, where a contravention of the regulations is detected, issue directions to the owner or master of a vessel or detain a vessel. Proceedings concerning offences under these regulations may be brought by the Minister for Transport. WRC inspectors currently do not have a statutory function in relation to SI 672/2019.

Following mediation in April 2019 on the atypical scheme, however, a settlement agreement provided that the Department of Justice would recommend that WRC adjudicators have jurisdiction over violations of the fishing vessel working time hours of rest regulations and that this would be implemented by the appropriate measures to be determined by my Department. In this regard, our Department has engaged with the Department of Transport and agreed a proposal to extend the WRC's jurisdiction relating to excessive working hours and insufficient breaks and rest periods. This proposal will be progressed as soon as is practicable in new legislation as part of a package we are working on. Hopefully, I will be able to provide a further update to the Deputy on this matter soon. I hope this deals with the specific question tabled. I think the Deputy wants to go further than this as well, which I am happy to do if there is time.

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