Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

On the same subject, at long last there is the opportunity for the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, to directly take responsibility. The unfortunate Minister of State with responsibility for the marine, of course, has apparently disappeared. A number of Ministers are currently under considerable pressure. The Minister, in his famous letter on administrative penalties, seems to accept that they are constitutional. This was a key issue in the Bill. He states they are not suitable but he seems to infer that they are constitutional. That is the advice which he gave me last week in answer to a question on the communication regulations directives from Europe, where he stated he had sought the advice of the Attorney General, who had deemed them to be legal. That is the outstanding point. Nobody condones gross illegality and thievery from the Irish people in fishing by any unscrupulous people and it is fair to say the vast majority of decent fisherman and their families — the 40,000 people in maritime communities — are anxious that there would be a transparent regime, but the Minister and his predecessor, and particularly the former Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Fahey, never made the slightest attempt to introduce a transparent regime or to deal with miscreants who were evading the fishery laws of the State. The Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, has a grave responsibility to address this matter. I support the call being made that unless he can deal with the issue of administrative penalties, he should come back to us with a comprehensive Bill, which would also give us some opportunity of dealing with fishing illegality by European fleets in our waters.

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