Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I share many of the concerns expressed but it is inaccurate to give the impression that those vessels are operating with impunity. This year, the 58 year old skipper of the Annelies Ilena, formerly the Atlantic Dawn, an Irish boat – let us take a look at ourselves in the mirror also – was fined more than €100,000 in Donegal Circuit Court after being found guilty by a jury on three charges of illegal fishing in Irish waters. When we can, we do inspect and if there are problems we bring the boats into port. Deputy Pringle will remember the vessel being in Donegal. I do not mean when it was the Atlantic Dawn. That was not meant to be a jibe.

I have spoken to the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and the Naval Service and I know there is a desire to board and inspect the vessels. Part of the problem is that in the middle of winter, in particular given the weather in the past three weeks, there are safety considerations. My understanding is that there are legal difficulties in requiring a vessel to come into port without having some cause for requiring it to do so. It is expensive for a vessel of that size to spend a number of hours going into port, tying up, having an inspection and heading back out to sea. There needs to be a reason to bring vessels of that size into port.

The information Deputy Pringle has from the SFPA may have been correct at the time it was given but the information I have today is that the database shows that Lithuania has a quota of 644 tonnes of mackerel in ICES zones 6, 7 and 6B, of which 544 tonnes have been caught, and the Margirishas a Lithuanian flag. Lithuania also has a quota of 5,953 tonnes of horse mackerel, of which 4,000 tonnes have been caught. Lithuania has a quota for a by-catch of mackerel but whether it has got it through some kind of swap arrangement, which may be the case, it would mean that the information the Deputy got is technically correct but that the quota has been swapped to get mackerel in order to be compliant when fishing in Irish waters.