Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The penalty points system is separate from the legal sanctions and penalties in place at the moment. These legal sanctions and penalties will continue to be in place for everyone, including member state vessels and non-member state vessels. The legal sanctions will continue to be in place but this will be a new system separate to the legal process. It is not a criminal system but one that deals with the potential for someone to have a licence and to be a master of a vessel and to run that vessel in compliance with the law and regulations. In cases where those law or regulations are breached it is provided for penalty points to be applied to the master's licence in the same way as penalty points would be applied to a driver's licence on the road. In cases where there are consistent, persistent and repetitive breaches of the regulations, a master subject to this legislation can accumulate penalty points. Where a master accumulates up to 90 penalty points, the master will be debarred from being a master and from being on the European register of masters after that point. Where there is one infringement but no more infringements for three years, then the penalty points that went with the infringement lapse. If a master continues within a three-year period to accrue further penalty points, the master will build up to the stage where it will impact on the licence. That is separate to the legal, penal, fines and court systems that apply separately to anyone who breaches fisheries regulations.