Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will recap. First, I understand that the European Commission stated that Ireland was the most compliant State in all of the EU in terms of regulation. Second, Ireland has a level of oversight that is unprecedented anywhere else in the EU. Mr. Hayes does not know if that is true but I believe it to be the case. I have outlined the level of oversight to which the industry is subjected yet we face the following debacle. The SFPA is in negotiations with the industry on the pier side flow-scale system and if these negotiations or agreements break down, then the matter goes to the High Court. On 4 June 2021, Mr. Justice Garrett Simons in the High Court ruled:

The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority has acted ultra viresby continuing to withhold approval for the pier-side weighing facility at Killybegs Port by reference to the “ownership” concerns raised by the European Commission. There is no legal basis for these concerns and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority has not sought to argue otherwise.

It is almost a year since the ruling was made. That was surely an instruction at that time for the SFPA to regularise the situation and ensure the calibration, and certification, of said weighing system. Does Mr. Hayes accept that the failure of the SFPA to do that has created the difficulties in which we find ourselves?