Dr. Susan Steele:

I apologise as we do not have the information in front of us but out of the 80% there are a large number of vessels, not just large-scale pelagic freezer vessels, landing into ports that are outside Ireland catching fish that are not freezing on board, that would not come into the category of the large-scale pelagic freezer vessels but I do not have the breakdown with me. Those inspections were just on what is referred to here as the super trawlers, what we call the large-scale pelagic freezer vessels. There were 1,000 inspections at sea of all different vessels, some that are landing into Irish ports and some that are landing outside. I am afraid I do not have the breakdown with me but we can look into that and come back to the committee with the information.

I will pass some of the more detailed operational questions to Mr. O'Mahony, but in relation to what is the coastal state unit going to look at, it is going to look specifically at what the Deputy outlined, namely, where the vessels are landing, the links with the port states and flag states of the vessels and what risks there are in that regard. It will have links with member states to look at their risk listings of vessels. If we have vessels here at the moment we do have information from other member states coming in, but just to make sure that we are seeing if there is high risk vessels from other countries that are fishing here, we are very aware of that and use it as part of our risk listings. There is a very descriptive project plan around the work that is going to be done by this unit, but it will have a very significant and important role in making sure that we are identifying and acting on all of the risks that are potentially there for Irish fish stocks. I invite Mr. O'Mahony to respond to the questions on operational areas.