Mr. Micheál O'Mahony:

I can see why the figures I quoted look small in the overall context. The general pattern of such vessels is to come, stay for quite some time and fish heavily while they are here, weather permitting. A total of 15 inspections in the year to date is a relatively high proportion of the fishing trips. If we go on board a vessel that has been in Irish waters for three weeks, that is an index of what it has been doing for three weeks, which might be compared, for example, to a lot of other vessels that might fish for two or three days and then land and we would inspect them then. Each of those landing inspections is an index of three days fishing activity whereas an inspection of a super trawler is an index of three weeks fishing activity. It is not really a case of comparing apples with apples. The figures I have given are in our view a useful percentage of the number of trips of those vessels but I accept they do not look big in the overall context.

We do not have the figure for the proportion of the Irish Box that is taken by these vessels. They fish particular species - pelagic species - and generally target horse mackerel within the Irish EZ. It would be their main reason for coming to the Irish EZ. Many other fish are caught in the Irish EZ.

The Deputy asked about follow through to the landing state. We have worked hard to make as good a relationship as we can with our equivalents in the Netherlands or Lithuania. There are really three states. There is a coastal state - us - the flag state and the landing state, which we call the port state. In some instances, our analysis of the data available to us might indicate that a potential risk of non-compliance. We would highlight that to the flag state, which would highlight it to the port state. On some occasions, although not very often, we have gone to view the inspection of the landing in the port state as well. These are frozen boxes of fish so it is a box count and a pallet count. Essentially, they are placed on pallets before they come off so they are really giant freezers. The boxes are relatively amenable to being counted. There is the issue of making sure a pallet of 30 kg boxes is a pallet of 30 kg boxes and not a pallet of 35 kg boxes. There are issues there with having to tow boxes of fish to make sure a pallet of 30 kg boxes of horse mackerel is not a pallet of 30 kg boxes of mackerel. We have a good relationship and liaison which we invoke on a risk basis when we perceive issues here. I hope that answers the question.