Mr. Cecil Beamish:

It was a growing phenomenon from 2003 onwards. The 2003 order would have been reviewed but there was an ongoing legal challenge to it on a different matter relating to the vires of the Minister's power to set up and charge in the harbours. This matter is now going before the Supreme Court. It was envisaged that the 2003 order would be changed but this was not done until 2012 because of the legal challenge. An arrangement was arrived at in order to keep this business in the country, which was to charge the flat rate of €250, as had been done previously in Dingle. When the order was changed, the flat rate was raised to €400 and made available to all vessels on a non-discriminatory basis. It is a single-point charge with higher payment compliance than any other form of charge and it is open to Irish and foreign vessels, but is only taken up by the foreign vessels. The Irish vessels use the annual arrangement. There would have been a decline in revenue had this not been available; these vessels would not have been coming and the downstream employment would have been lost consequentially.

When the opportunity came to re-format the statutory instrument the charge was raised, but it has remained as a single entry point charge. It has been used since and the number of vessels coming in has continued to increase. The focus on a loss of revenue is a very narrow picture. In fact, the business was retained and it has been possible to increase the charge since. The volume of business has grown in parallel with it and compliance is very high.

It has to do with the way in which a vessel operates a fishing trip. The crew and the expenses are taken out of the catch when it is sold on the quayside. Therefore the expenses include the harbour dues; they are deducted out of the catch and ultimately the crew gets paid a division of what is left. For a fishing vessel to operate, it needs to know what its charges and costs are going to be in order to divvy up the outcome of the trip. These Spanish, French and other vessels were not willing to come in to Ireland and pay a month or six weeks later for something that had occurred on the trip. We have to take into account the nature of the business we were trying to attract and retain and grow, and put that charge into the wider context. It was an awkward situation, and it was not possible to change the order instantly because of the legal challenge. The charge is now higher, it is paid and the business is growing.