Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 8 November 2016

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Fishing Industry: Discussion

5:00 pm

Dr. Susan Steele:

I would like to respond to Deputy Thomas Pringle's question about how many times there have been inspections at sea. As we said, they are limited by weather conditions and certain risk factors. The Deputy asked whether we should have a system for inspections. I assure him that we have such a system. We have an ability to bring a vessel into port. However, we cannot do this unless there is a risk basis in the same way there needs to be a reason to pull in and check a person who is driving along the road in a vehicle. We cannot just bring into port a vessel to have a look at what is on board. We have the ability to bring into port any vessel that is in our waters if we think there is a high risk.