Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The State's fishery protection capability, as provided by my Department, is delivered by the Naval Service and the Air Corps. The main day-to-day role of the Naval Service, which is equipped with a total of eight vessels comprising one helicopter-carrying vessel, five offshore patrol vessels and two coastal patrol vessels, is to provide a fishery protection service in accordance with the State's obligations as a member of the European Union. The service is tasked with patrolling all Irish waters from the shoreline to the outer limits of the exclusive fishery limit, which covers an area of 132,000 square miles. These patrols are carried out on a regular and frequent basis and are directed to all areas of Irish waters as necessary.

Fishery protection patrols are complemented by assistance provided by the Air Corps in the form of aerial surveillance by the two Casa maritime patrol aircraft. Fishery protection activity accounts for over 90% of all Naval Service patrol time and more or less all of the maritime squadron's output.

The operational targeting of the protection effort is co-ordinated with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in accordance with procedures set down in the service level agreement between that Department and the Department of Defence. Such targeting takes account of previous history of fishing, infringements, sightings, fishing zones, closed areas and species and allocated quotas, among other things. A comprehensive process is in place to identify and agree patrol plans and inspection targets. The objective in all cases is the protection of the fishing assets of the State. The Naval Service does not concentrate unduly on fishery control in respect of the Irish fishing effort within Irish territorial waters. In numerical terms, the Naval Service inspects more Irish than non-Irish vessels because more Irish vessels are present in our patrol area.

The statistics show, however, that over the past three years, the percentage of non-Irish vessels in the patrol area that the Naval Service has boarded and inspected is greater than the percentage of Irish vessels so inspected. In the 11 months to November 2004 Irish vessels accounted for 49% of vessels sighted in the patrol area but only 44% of boardings and inspections.

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