Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for organising the wonderful Seanad100 event today. There was a real sense of pride and privilege in being able to listen to Senator Norris and the former Senator and President, Mary Robinson. It was really heartening to see that the light is still shining very brightly for both of them with regard to their campaigning.

I raise today the issue of the scheme to regularise the status of long-term undocumented migrants opened by the Government on 31 January. For those of us who have been arguing in this House for justice for the undocumented in this country for a long time, this is a major breakthrough. Like so many others, I want this scheme to succeed but I have serious concerns about the eligibility criteria. It appears that some of those who were previously documented but who are now undocumented will be excluded from this new Government scheme. We have to ask why that is the case. The very nature of some of the employment schemes under which workers come here means that they are tied to their employers. When such workers are injured or feel they have to leave their jobs because of harassment or appalling conditions, they not only leave their job but also lose their documented status. I particularly wish to raise the plight of 200 ex-fishers who are currently not documented. Because they were documented in the last four years, they cannot apply for the Government scheme announced on 31 January. It is not right and it is not good enough. If this groundbreaking regularisation scheme is to live up to its potential and if it is to afford a future to those who have come and made their lives here and who are working in the Irish economy or in the seas around this island, we cannot turn our backs on those workers. I am conscious that an interdepartmental review group has been set up to look at the atypical permits scheme.This scheme was developed in 2015 on the back of Trojan work by the International Transport Workers Federation, which effectively unmasked and uncovered the appalling exploitation of workers that is happening in Irish waters and on Irish vessels, with exploited fishers working in those vessels. The review is likely to come out over the next weeks. In that review we really need to see that the process by which undocumented fishers are documented and how they are documented is corrected, that it is not just left to the vessel owners to document the workers and, crucially, that fishers working on Irish registered vessels are no longer tethered to their employers.

There are two distinct but related issues here. First, all workers who were previously documented and who fell out of documented status have to be eligible for the Government's new scheme. Second, it is no longer acceptable that any work permit in the State would tether an employee to his or her employer. They have to be free of their employer and free to be able to take up employment wherever else after a period of time.