Ms Susan Steele:

We welcome the invitation to attend today's meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to discuss SI 3 of 2014, which establishes Ireland's system for issuing points to the licence holders of fishing vessels in serious infringements of the Common Fisheries Policy. We would like initially to describe the context of this fisheries offences point system, then we propose describing the EU obligations and finally, how this will be implemented within Ireland.

Beginning with the context, the point system for licence holders is just one tool in a tool box to deal with non-compliances which might be detected by the sea fisheries protection officers.

The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority's legal obligation and primary strategy is to promote compliance and deter non-compliance for the benefit of lawful fishermen and the support of sustainable commercial fisheries. We want to spend our days and nights at work preventing non-compliance, rather than dealing with non-compliance. To put it another way we want to stop the behaviours of fishermen who are infringing, not to spend our time catching infringement. So while we will focus on this system today for dealing with non-compliances, we ask the committee members to see how these points fit within an overall compliance strategy within which we operate.

A further necessary context here is that of the system of sanctions within the implementation of regulations and the pursuit of compliance. Sanctions for non-compliances are a normal part of implementing regulations in any walk of life. Sanctions for infringements serve two main roles; they primarily exist to deter would-be infringers from infringing in the first instance and they exist as a form of punishment for the actual infringers. The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority is committed to being a fair regulator and that requires a graduated and proportionate system of sanctions, reflecting the extent of wrongdoing. We are firmly of the view that there is a substantial difference between the proverbial sheep and lamb. Sanctions can only serve their primary deterrent purpose if they are allocated in a measured way, sparingly with maximal effect.

By way of final context, points for serious infringements are not something that should concern the law-abiding fishermen, nor the fishermen who might have a once-off minor administrative problem. This system is something which will impact profoundly on those whose fishing vessel licence is repeatedly used to disregard in a deliberate and premeditated manner the laws of our State set down by these Houses. From our work with the fishing Industry we are aware of the difference between those who break the rules repeatedly and deliberately as part of their business strategy and those who break the rules through poor judgment in a moment of time.