Madam - The value of Irish exports and imports passing through our seaports is now more than €150 billion a year. Unfortunately, since Ireland owns only a handful of merchant ships, over 90 per cent of these goods are handled by foreign-owned ships.
Almost half of these, including almost all container ships trading into our ports, operate under a flag of convenience. This is a system whereby the true owners of the vessels distance themselves from owners' responsibilities. The result, all too often, is that the crews of these ships have sub-standard pay and conditions and are often denied their most basic human and civil rights.
At present the social partners are preparing to negotiate a new national agreement and the question of workers rights and their enforcement is rightly on the agenda.
I think it is time they paid serious attention to the rights and entitlements of Ireland's hidden workforce - the foreign seafarers who carry our vital exports to the marketplace and who bring in the vital imports without which our economy could not function. - Yours, etc,
TONY AYTON, Avondale Lawn, Waterford.