Dr. Susan Steele:

I thank the Senator and I have not had the pleasure of meeting him before. I will address that question first, which is a significant one. The first thing to be aware of is that the sampling plans are still in place. This means the full catch does not have to be weighed in all situations. There are sampling plans where parts of the catch can be weighed.

The responsibility for food safety is obviously with food business operators. The key things are ensuring unloading and landing equipment that comes into contact with the fishery products is constructed of material that is easy to clean and disinfect and is maintained in a good state of repair and cleanliness. There should be an avoidance of contamination of fishery products during the unloading and landing, which means people working as quickly as possible to move product into ice and not use equipment and practices that cause unnecessary damage to the fish. The crew members must have a reasonable standard of hygiene and prevent contamination of fish or fishery products through contact with any open wounds or sores. The ice that is being to used to chill all the fishery products must be made from either potable water or clean seawater.

When we are looking at this, the onus is on the operator, but within the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, one of the key areas we often work on is in the promotion of compliance. There has been work and there will be a frequently asked questions document that is going up. There will be discussion with members of the industry. We have already met many people in the industry. We are meeting with the fish buyers and we are working with a group of the industry on these questions. So we will have information on our website, we will have consultation and will work with the industry. The main thing is that the sampling plans are in position. That means not every single box of fish has to be emptied. It is as per the sampling plans that were agreed in 2012, which are still in place. I hope I have given some assurance of the seriousness with which we take this and the work we are doing with the industry.

We are dealing in Ireland with an industry that we find is largely compliant in many port areas. Since the news of the control plan came out, there has been incredible engagement by the industry which has worked with us and suggested solutions. I praise and thank the many people who have engaged with us and worked with us on this matter.