Mr. Cormac Burke:

I thank members for the opportunity to speak to them. Some 19 years ago, this Act gave birth to the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority but a fact that seems to have been lost over the years is that this body is only empowered under the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act 1998. Intended to give the fishing industry an equal level of monitoring and control as in all EU member states, this Act has failed and has only resulted in an organisation that sees itself as being unaccountable to any level of Irish governance. The European Commission's fisheries control website states that the aim of the system is to ensure that the CFP rules are applied correctly so that fishing activities are equally environmentally, economically and socially sustainable but for Ireland, the 2006 Act and later the proposed inclusion of a penalty points system for fishing infringements as part of the Criminal Justice Act 2011 and the subsequent amendments in 2019 and 2022 have not resulted in a fair system of control, as it has been the SFPA's own interpretation of EU regulations that has been the problem.

Ireland’s fishing industry always accepted that being part of the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy meant the need to adopt a structure of fisheries control but only if this was a fair EU-wide control system and within the well-worn term of a level playing field, a far cry from what exists in Ireland today.

For today’s meeting, I sought the opinions of many fishing industry personnel and it is clear there is general lack of trust, co-operation or understanding. The current groundswell of opinion in Ireland is that Irish law needs to be amended to see the removal of the SFPA’s own version of the penalty point system and its replacement by a system on a par with elsewhere in the EU, and that, as a matter of great urgency, the SFPA be reformed, reduced in size and powers, and placed under direct control of the Food Safety Authority. The resulting fisheries monitoring body would be answerable to the marine Minister and the Oireachtas fisheries committee.