Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs
Review of Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006: Discussion
2:00 am
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
The next question is on oversight. I found it extraordinary. Everybody on this committee accepts the need for a regulatory authority. There is a job to be done and that is fair enough but it is about common-sense policing, as I would refer to it.
We all know the difference in communities between having a garda who works for the community and having one who does not, and the outworkings of that. Can I get feedback on that in the context of oversight and regulation? This committee has tasked itself with looking at this matter and at the need to review the Act. Five different areas have been highlighted. I am trying to zone in on those two and how we compare with other European countries. It is now about oversight. What would be the vision for how that oversight should work? Mr. Burke has talked about taking one wing under one regulatory authority and another directly under the Department. I would like to get a sense of the witnesses' thoughts on that.
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