Dr. Susan Steele:

I thank the Deputies for some good questions. The first question was about the scrutiny. We hear this all the time as well. The first thing one will hear at a port is "How come more Irish vessels are being inspected than foreign vessels?" When we look at the statistics - which are in the annual report - and we take out smaller vessels, a vessel landing has a one in ten chance of being inspected if it is a foreign vessel and a one in 15 chance if it is an Irish vessel, when working on the inspections by numbers. We work, however, on a risk basis; if a vessel has had a higher risk behaviour or has shown something that looks like there would be more cause for an inspection, that is how the inspections are done. We do not have a target number per year of so many foreign vessels or so many Irish vessels to be inspected. We work on a risk basis. I will provide committee members with the statistics and the breakdown of how every single inspection is carried out but we are looking at ensuring marine resources are shared fairly.

Reference was made to factory ships and how these might be policed. We see risks in factory ships and we see huge numbers of risks in Community vessels fishing in Irish waters. A Community vessel hails when it is coming in to Irish waters and then we will receive the information on what their catch is when they are fishing in Irish waters. Then, when they exit our waters we no longer receive those reports. Reports can be changed after they leave Irish waters. We see this as a huge risk. We have travelled to meet with the EU Director General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Mr. Machado and the Commission to raise our fears about the risks that are there. The SFPA sits on a number of different compliance committees and with other Community regulatory authorities where we would discuss this issue to try to find solutions to these risks. How do we police factory ships? We police them by inspections. The Naval Service will inspect them with at-sea inspections. They are extremely difficult vessels to inspect due to their size and in rough weather conditions, it would not be safe for naval officers to go on board. An inspection would also involve fishery officers going on board to check things. We have had some successful cases. We use the term "factory ships" but large-scale processing vessels would be a good way of describing them.