Only six work permits have been issued in the year since Ireland introduced a new work permit scheme for migrant fishers working aboard Irish owned trawlers.
Ireland introduced the new scheme in 2024 after its previous scheme, the atypical work permit scheme introduced in 2016, was scrapped in 2022 after allegations of abuse against foreign crews. Ireland was jolted into action on reforming its migrant workers scheme when the U.S. State Department downgraded the country’s ranking in its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2021, specifically mentioning labor abuse in Ireland’s fishing industry as part of its rationale.
Ruth Coppinger, a member of Ireland’s parliament, recently tabled a written question for Ireland Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke requesting details on how the new migrant fisher scheme is performing. According to his response, just six permits – on fourteen applications – have been issued in the year since the scheme was introduced in July 2024.
“The Employment Permits legislation sets out the criteria which must be satisfied in order for an Employment Permit to be issued,” Burke wrote in response to the question. “The Employment Permit Section informs me that the most common reasons for the refusal of an employment permit include contract or documentation issues, salary below minimum threshold, and immigration issues.”
Unite the Union Regional Officer Michael O'Brien, who helped draft the question, told SeafoodSource he believes Irish fishing firms “do not want to pay” the minimum EUR 34,000 (USD 39,780) salary which is a condition of the permit.
O’Brien last year told SeafoodSource that Irish fishing firms were recruiting Indonesian workers that hadn’t gone through proper work permits to avoid hiring under the permit scheme – undermining the reforms put in place for fishery workers in Ireland. O’Brien speculated at the time that those operators were working to avoid the mandated salaries, and that some workers were promised as little as GBP 1,300 (USD 1,750, EUR 1,500) a month.
Irish Fish Producers Organisation (IFPO) Head Aodh O’Donnell told SeafoodSource earlier this year that pay is not the issue. Rather, significant bureaucracy involved in applications for the new permits was to blame for the low take up. Only four fishing companies applied to participate in the program as of January.
O’Donnell said under the scheme, workers cannot move companies easily and lead times for hiring are long.
“When an employment permit is granted, the employee is restricted to only working for the employer stated on the permit. To change employers, they must wait until nine months after their first permit was granted to apply for another permit,” he said.
