Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is the towing away of fishing gear by these vessels. It is a civil criminal matter rather than a matter for the SFPA. On receipt of such a report, how would gardaí interview the masters of these vessels when they stay offshore and do not land into Irish ports? Could they be asked to come in? These are major questions on how this is policed and we can do that as a member state. This is taken in conjunction with how rigorously our own vessels are policed and monitored; to allow these vessels to operate with virtual impunity in our waters is very difficult for our fishing communities to accept or understand.

I have asked about observers in parliamentary questions as well and the answer has always been that if observers are placed on board, it is important to remember that they would be from the flag member state. That implies that we would not know what is happening anyway because the observer would not come from Ireland. I understand there is already provision for observers to be placed on the ships so what are we doing to make that happen? Are we raising this at a European level or with flag member states? If this relates to assessed risks of a more transient nature, surely the fact that the Margirisis fishing here with quota for a single species is a risk-----