Mr. Micheál O'Mahony:

Senator Mulherin's question probably purveys two of our areas. To follow that thread, I refer to our role as regards the monitoring of shellfish areas. First, they are classified shellfish areas. There is a shellfish waters directive and there are the food safety areas. For us, it is a classified area. We classify them on a microbiological basis. In general terms, it is a question of how clean is the water. They get graded A, B or C.

When we have downgrading of an area, we inform the coastal area local authority of any downgradings we have. Every year, we classify the areas. If an area goes from B to C or from A to B, we will let the relevant coastal local authorities know. We inform them and we meet and talk with them. We send the same list to the EPA and let it know what is happening. We have a fairly good dialogue there.

As for whether we go after the polluters, that is not our role. Our role is to classify, and we extend that as far as we can to inform the relevant regulators in the area.

There is a reciprocal relationship whereby if a local authority has, for example, a storm water overflow, it will inform us of that so that we might enhance our monitoring around that storm water overflow as well. Therefore, there is a bit of a reciprocal relationship there. The direct answer to the question is, "No". We do not go after the would-be polluter.