Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Inland Fisheries Ireland: Discussion

Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

Yes. That relates to the patrols. They are seizing nets or commercial netting and this leads to prosecutions. Anglers typically receive on-the-spot fines or warnings. We try to engage with anglers rather than getting into that. Prosecution is for a criminal offence so we keep the prosecution, if we want to call it that, for the very serious offences. In addition, the Deputy will be aware that we had an issue in 2017 regarding advisability of prosecuting. Emergency legislation was brought forward and that had an impact on the figures.