Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. I regret it if he had some difficulty ascertaining within whose remit the issue lies. It is another example of the all-encompassing tentacles of the Department of Justice and Equality in the State. First, a High Court case is pending so I am restricted in what I can say. It is now almost three years since the employment of non-EEA crew members in the Irish fishing fleet was highlighted. In November 2015, the Government established an interdepartmental task force, which was chaired by the then Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, with the objective of formulating a co-ordinated and effective cross-Government response to the issue. The culmination of this work was the development of a new scheme that involved putting in place detailed contracts between the vessel owners and the non-EEA nationals with a series of protections and a corresponding series of obligations contained therein. These include, for example, details of wage rates and the repatriation at the end of the contract period paid for by the vessel owner. It is only after this is in place that the matter of immigration permission arises to allow such workers to be legally resident in the State. This is facilitated by my Department through the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, which issues the atypical permission.

A memorandum of understanding for the monitoring and enforcement of the scheme was put in place between all the appropriate parties to ensure the various bodies with oversight of the sector were part of the solution. The scheme applies to crew members working on licensed and registered fishing vessels in the polyvalent, beamer and specific segments of the Irish fishing fleet for vessels more than 15 m in length overall. There is no time limit as to how long the scheme will last. The only condition relating to time is that the permission under the atypical work scheme for crew members must be applied for annually. Applicants to the scheme are required to have a contract of employment for a minimum term of 12 months. The permission under the scheme is granted in line with the duration of the contract.

Currently, there are no plans to extend the period for which atypical permission for a crew member may be granted. However, the atypical working scheme makes provision for both the renewal of a crew member's permission and the transfer of a crew member to an alternative employer within the industry as and when that might be required. As was noted by the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation in its report of November 2017, the scheme crosses a number of Departments and agencies. The role of my Department, through INIS, is to provide the appropriate immigration permission to the non-EEA nationals who have gone through the contract procedure, which is overseen by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and who have met the criteria to work as a non-EEA crew member in the State. As part of the atypical approval process, the person applying for the permission is required to present confirmation of compliance with the requirements from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the form of a unique identifier number issued by that Department and its central depository for contracts.

The Department of Justice and Equality is committed to publishing statistics on the number of permissions granted under the scheme on a half-yearly basis commencing in January next year. I can confirm that 29 new atypical permissions were granted and 107 permissions were renewed in 2017. Up to 31 October last, 44 new permissions were granted, 109 permissions were renewed and 12 permissions were granted for a change of employer.

The granting of an immigration permission follows from the contract put in place by the vessel owner and the non-EEA employee. Like all work permits issued in the State, the immigration permission follows in line with the terms and conditions of the particular contract. There are provisions in the scheme for new contracts to be put in place and for the transfer of contracts from one vessel owner to another should the case arise. It would not be possible to extend the immigration permission without first ensuring that there is a contract in place. The contract is specifically designed to protect the employee by clearly setting out the terms and conditions and the obligations of the vessel owners.