Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

At 10 a.m. on 27 May 2005, the Celtic Sun, vessel T160, left Fenit on a fishing voyage. On board was skipper John Moriarty and his brother Billy Moriarty. At 1.30 p.m. the Naval Service vessel LE Emer called on the Celtic Sun to cut its engines as it wished to conduct a routine boarding. Both vessels were located eight miles south-west of Loop Head, at 52° 32' north, 10° 10' west. The boarding officer from the LE Emer was D. Tighe, who was accompanied by a female officer.

The naval officers requested the fishing vessel's logbook. The skipper, John Moriarty, informed them that as he was on a voyage of less than 24 hours, it was not necessary to have a logbook on board. The officer said he would not accept this and that he would accompany the crew of the fishing vessel ashore. The crew asked permission to shoot the nets and to go ashore to speak with the regional officer of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources for the area. This was not accepted so they contacted a fisheries inspectorate officer, Kevin Flannery from Dingle, by mobile telephone and asked him to clarify the situation. They lost contact on the telephone but, working through the Valentia lifeboat service VHF radio, in the company of the naval officer, they again made contact with the inspector, Mr. Flannery. Mr. Flannery relayed to both the skipper and the naval officer that it is not necessary to have a logbook on board if the voyage is of less than 24 hours' duration.

The regulation concerning log books when fishing in Community waters states:

Masters of all fishing vessels more than 10 metres in length shall keep a logbook.

This rule shall not apply to vessels of more than 10 metres but not more than 17 metres in length on a fishing voyage of a maximum of 24 hours measured from the time of leaving port to the time of returning to port.

The length of the Celtic Sun is 11.95 m. It is clear, given the regulations governing fishing in Community waters, that the vessel was fishing legally and the information relayed to the naval officer by the fishing inspector was correct. A warning was issued to the crew at 2.22 p.m. in respect of them not having a log book, they were ordered to go ashore and were accompanied as far as Kerry Head. They met the fishing officer with whom I spoke on the phone. He confirmed the details I have read out.

The crew lost a day's fishing as a result of this, and it was their only day's fishing that week. They have only had three days' fishing in the past four weeks. Notwithstanding the running costs of getting to the fishing grounds, they then had to come straight back. Many other vessels of the same length, or between 10 m and 14 m, on one-day fishing trips of less than 24 hours are similarly affected. The matter must be clarified. The Departments of Defence and Communications, Marine and Natural Resources are in conflict regarding interpretation of the rules. I thank the Minister of State for listening.

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