Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and his officials for attending. On the balance of probabilities, I do not think the Minister will find anybody who disagrees that everybody is entitled to due process and to have themselves tried beyond reasonable doubt. That has been a major concern for years when it comes to this Bill. I do not know if the Minister has tried to do anything about it. Is there anywhere in the audit to which he can point to show us he has taken on board the suggestions and concerns of the fishing sector?

The licence holder gets ten days to appeal and 20 days from the date of notification. Why is there such a short timeframe for making submissions or appeals? We all know how slow that process is and to have boats or fishermen tied down to such a short timescale is unreasonable, in my view.

There is an article in the Irish Examinerthis morning about the derogation being withdrawn, which states that there are factories which are not fit for purpose for the weighing system. There are 33 suspected fraud cases and a figure has been thrown out of 40,000 tonnes----