Mr. Micheál O'Mahony:

We do not issue licences. If an appeal were not upheld or if the decision to assign points stands, we would notify the licensing authority, which is an independent authority within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, of those points. The licensing authority would assign those points and would then deal with the outcomes should they arise. We cannot answer that particular question. I would point out that the only way that this points system gets to that endgame is by repeated serious infringements, even if one has been put off the water once, twice or three times. Withdrawal of a fishing licence is continually used in the case of serious infringements. The outcome the Deputy mentioned is one that would follow repeated serious infringements and not one into which anyone could simply stumble.