Mr. Dominic Rihan:

It is an important question. Again, to stress what Mr. Byrne said, we want to have effective control but we want to have an agency where there is some oversight and some checks and balances. At the moment, we do not see those checks and balances. The consultative committee, as I mentioned, has a strong role to play here. In many respects, the Act envisaged it to have that very clear oversight role, but it does not have teeth at the moment. It has no real say. Where do any recommendations it makes go and what happens? That is one level of oversight that really needs to be looked at in regard to how that is working. I do not necessarily think the Bill needs to be changed in any sense. It just needs to be interpreted. A commitment needs to be made by the SFPA and the Minister to engage properly with the committee and allow that discussion that is absolutely needed.

The other important point the Deputy made was about the oversight and practicality. We do not have that level of practicality any more. It seems almost to have been taken away from port officers on the ground. One small example of that is that in one harbour in particular, fisheries officers would help the fishermen to measure their nets to make sure they were legal, in a non-adversarial way, and tell them they need to change their gear because it is bordering on being illegal. That was taken away. They were told not to do that in any circumstances whatsoever, yet that practicality is really important and helps the job of a fisherman, which is a hard one. It makes it a little easier for them.