Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Nash for raising this important matter and to apologise on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, who cannot be here. It is now almost 18 months since the issue of the employment of non-EEA crew members in the Irish fishing fleet was highlighted in the media as an issue of concern. The Guardian, in particular, highlighted issues, with claims of exploitation of migrant workers on Irish fishing trawlers. Following these revelations, the Government moved swiftly to address the concerns and abuses highlighted through an inter-departmental task force chaired by the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, which was established in November 2015. The task force, of which the Senator in his then capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for business and employment was an active member, met on a number of occasions and a new scheme was developed that addressed the issues of concern, improved the situation for non-EEA workers, reduced the possibility of abuse and allowed the fishing industry to meet its labour needs.As one of the authors of the report, the Senator is aware that the scheme only applies to crew members working on licensed and registered fishing vessels in the polyvalent, beamer and other specific segments of the Irish fleet where the vessels are more than 15 m in length overall, multi-crewed and labour intensive.

The role of the Tánaiste's Department comes at the end of a process that clears the way for a non-EEA national to be employed on a particular boat after the input of the various departmental and statutory bodies with oversight of the sector. The Department of Justice and Equality provides, through a special atypical working scheme for seafarers, work permission for non-EEA fishermen. This permission provides an appropriate pathway through which this category of worker can be lawfully employed within the industry. Following this, the relevant statutory bodies responsible for implementing employment law, including employment protection, can effectively discharge their responsibilities as part of the overall regulatory regime for the employment of non-EEA workers. The programme commenced on 15 February 2016 and, for the first three months, applications were confined to non-EEA crew members who were already working in the Irish fishing industry. However, owing to the slow uptake of the scheme, the Department extended the initial three-month period from 15 May to 30 June 2016.

The new scheme required the establishment of the central depository of contracts, managed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to record, examine and monitor the number of contracts in the scheme which was to be capped at a maximum of 500; a pre-clearance system managed by the central depository to be introduced for all applications; and the grant of atypical working permission. Like many other others, the fishing industry is not immune to abuse by unscrupulous employers. Therefore, it is important that these overall arrangements which involve the co-operation of all stakeholders remain a deterrent to such abuses to protect employees. To that end, officials in the Department of Justice and Equality have worked with others within the industry to ensure compliance where issues arise that were not dealt with by the appropriate authorities. Officials from the Department of Justice and Equality have contacted their counterparts in the Departments of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation with a view to meeting to assess the overall operation of the scheme to date.