Mr. Dominic Rihan:

I will build on some of Mr. Lynch's comments. It is worth saying that our organisations have tried to engage with the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, in the past 12 months. We have had some constructive dialogue with it and it is really important that we build on that working relationship with it for both the regulator and the regulated. I will touch on a few issues in terms of a review of the Bill. The first is the issue of accountability. When we meet the Minister, the Department or the SFPA, we are consistently told that there are certain issues we cannot discuss because they are operational. We do not know what operational is. We have never seen a definition of it but it seems to be used as a catch all for every issue relating to control and we never get the discussion we seek to understand and to be able to respond and look at solutions and how to make things better. The accountability of the SFPA needs to be looked in respect of the Bill.

Another issue is the consultative committee that was set up as part of the Bill. The committee is a very good structure. It needs to have that oversight but consistently, the membership of the committee has said it is a conduit for information but nothing more. Again, we do not really get the detailed discussion of the issues we wish to have and again and the argument that something is operational is used consistently as a reason not to discuss things. The other issue is the formation of that committee. There are supposed to be 14 members. Currently there are 12. Two members of the Killybegs Fishermens Organisation, KFO, who were on that committee have retired. We have sought to have me put back on that committee as a representative of the KFO for nearly 12 months but as that still has not happened, we need a system regarding how members come and go from that committee and, again, there does not seem to be a lot of transparency about that.