Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for providing that report to the committee. The truth is this has caused considerable comment and not just in coastal communities, as it happens.

It has become almost a national debate, in particular on social media and in some of the industry publications as well. The four vessels are the Margiris, theAnnelies Ilena, theJan Mariaand the Willem Van Der Zwan, which are Lithuanian, Dutch and German ships. If we take what they say, and what the press releases of their association say, that they are operating in good faith, is there any reason that we cannot ask them that before they enter Irish-controlled waters they would come to port for a brief few hours for an inspection before they reach the fishing grounds and, similarly as they leave and if a boarding cannot be carried out by authorised officials, that the ships would be inspected at a port before they leave? They are not just fishing vessels; they are processors and that is the way they should be dealt with. There are cameras, inspections and at times much self-reporting in processing factories onshore. The regime is a little different. In this case, there are four processing vessels with huge capability not just to catch fish, but to process them. We take it at face value that they are catching within their quotas. The rules should apply in Irish territorial waters equally to processors onshore. A pre-fishing inspection and a post-fishing inspection in Irish-controlled waters should be acceptable if they are genuine and acting in good faith. I do not see how the vessel managers would not facilitate such a request if they were requested to comply. If not, I agree with the Minister that if officials were to hold onboard inspections then the inspectors should be Irish-based officials. I cannot say a Lithuanian, Dutch or German official would do anything differently but the perception would be all wrong and it would be difficult to manage.

It is worth noting that a significant amount of foreign or visiting vessels come into Irish waters not just in the pelagic sector, but also in the white fish sector. Equally, we have Irish vessels fishing in other waters. For example, a cod quota is caught by an Irish vessel in Norwegian waters and cuttlefish are caught by Irish vessels in UK waters, but the scale of it is completely different. There is a significant issue of perception and a greater effort in terms of being more proactive on enforcement would allay many fears. As Deputy Pringle and Deputy Ferris said, if the vessels are working outside the law, that would be picked up very quickly if such an inspection regime were in place.