Mr. Micheál O'Mahony:

I wish to add a comment on the level of compliance in member states. One of the points we have consistently made around this table, that we make in our input to European processes and in our submissions on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is that we are not told about this. We work in the areas of seafood safety and sea fisheries control. In the area of food safety, the audits of member states are published. If a member of the committee asks me if Spain is compliant, I can quote what is stated in the audit report of the Spanish food safety authority, but there is no such publication when it comes to sea fisheries control. We believe there should be such a publication as such transparency and ventilation would greatly help to counter the view expressed by members' constituents that there is not a level playing field when it comes to compliance. I would challenge the view that a perceived lower level of compliance is an argument in favour of less compliance. I would spin it around and say we all need to aim for compliance. Our version of a level playing field is one that includes compliance. We know when a member state has been subjected to punitive sanctions owning to non-compliance. For instance, Spain lost almost all of its mackerel quota for two years running in 2010 and 2011.

Member states have been sanctioned. Ireland was at the latter stages of a potential sanction at the time of inception of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority. That is one of the reasons we exist. The point I am making is that member states have been sanctioned and there are explicit provisions in that regard.