Mr. Andrew Kinneen:

I wanted to come in on the Senator's comment on human health risks arising out of the new arrangements in place for the weighing of fish before transport. It is worthwhile taking note of the sampling plans, which greatly reduce the amount of fish that has to be weighed. The SFPA will do everything to facilitate and promote compliance with the requirement by buyers and fishers. To that effect, we would support EU funding for the purchase of suitable scales and other equipment. We had discussions with our control partners in the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, on calibration issues and bringing this equipment online for the practitioners in the industry.

There is no doubt there is a risk that the quality of the fish will be affected by what I regard as additional handling, but I assure the Senator it will not get to the point, to my knowledge in any event, that there will be a risk to human health arising from the fish.

This issue points to the value of the dual role of the SFPA, where there is a definite knowledge in the organisation with regard to quality, the handling of fish, the preservation of the cold chain and the protection of public health across the board. Equally, that is linked to our role in monitoring illegal, unreported and unregulated, IUU-caught fish coming on the market where it is certified as compliant with that regulation and as eligible for export certification, as might be required, to third countries. The dual role in the statute, as I might loosely call it, serves the Irish industry very well in that an organisation has knowledge of both the environmental impact of the catching and the proper management and production on the market of the quality of the seafood product.