Mr. Andrew Kinneen:

To add to my colleague’s comments on the natural justice aspect, this is novel in terms of the operation of sanctions applied on infringements of the fisheries policy. We are conscious that we are accountable to this committee, and are very happy to be so. As members know, we will always appear on request or by any other means. We have made a formal statement to the committee on our wish to be proportionate and apply this measure correctly. It will be a disaster if we make a mess of it. If we increase the sense of injustice within the fishing industry, our chances of promoting compliance and getting people to stick to the regulations will be greatly diminished.

Beyond the points appeals mechanism, there is a complaints officer handling the work of the SFPA in the application of its statutory functions. I refer to the section 49 complaints officer. The mechanism is open to any member of the industry who believes we have used the very real powers ascribed to us incorrectly or inappropriately. This form of recourse is independent of the legal route. The legal route is always available as it is the independent right of every citizen. One can question or protest over the manner in which we do our work. We are very mindful of that.

As Mr. O’Mahony says, this particular statutory instrument came into law in January, and it is now early in March. As far as we are aware, no serious infringement has been detected since it was put in place.