A Labour Senator has reacted to claims that some migrant fishermen in Ireland are being treated like slaves’.
It follows the introduction last year of a Government permit scheme aimed at protecting the pay and conditions of non-EU fishermen who work on Irish trawlers.
An RTÉ Prime Time programme has highlighted a range of abuses and Senator Ged Nash said there’s clearly a problem with enforcement.
Well I raised my concerns about the operation of the scheme in the Seanad in recent months, he said. I have raised it time and again and unfortunately the Government haven’t seen fit to bring the stakeholders together to try to identify ways in which the scheme could be improved. What I would say is that we need to start with enforcement.
Irish Examiner Ltd, Linn Dubh, Assumption Road, Blackpool, Cork.