Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The substance of the new statutory instrument does not give one confidence it would survive another High Court challenge with respect to the fairness of proceedings. The Minister, instead of introducing primary legislation or substantially altering the statutory instrument, has acted in haste and is using the threat of fines and withdrawal of funds from the EU as a stick after the fact in forcing this through. This is not to criticise the penalty points system in itself; it is a necessary system which is important in terms of the enforcement of the Common Fisheries Policy and, critically, to restore and maintain fish stocks above levels capable of supporting maximum sustainable yield.

Things get murky at this point. The debate here is not really getting to the crux of the matter. Fish stocks are plummeting and overfishing is a reality in Ireland. Fish quotas are in place because there is a limited number of fish in our waters. We cannot increase the fish quotas until the fish stocks increase. The fish stocks cannot increase until we tackle the real issues facing fish stocks. We need effective legislation to tackle fishing operators who overfish. That means taking on major industrial polluters who warm the waters around our island and further afield. It means taking on the agricultural industry over eutrophication and water extraction on our rivers. It means shutting down all coastal salmon farms that spread sea lice and forget to report salmon escapes. It means doing something to tackle the domestic use of harmful cleaning detergents, to tackle sewage discharge and anything that contributes to global warming.

Sadly, the Government is largely responsible for much of the overfishing. During the December 2017 negotiations on total allowable catch, TAC, for commercial fish stocks, where comparable scientific advice was available, 57 TACs were set above advice, amounting to over 206,000 tonnes of excess TAC. This is continuing the trend of permitting overfishing in EU waters, with Atlantic TACs set 9% above scientific advice on average. The Irish Government secured a TAC 18% in excess of available scientific advice, impeding the transition to sustainable fisheries in the EU and endangering the future of jobs in this industry.

According to the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, the level of non-compliance with regulations within the Irish fishing fleet is consistently low and most of the people in the industry want to work within the law. On the other hand, the infringement rate in Ireland is so low in comparison to other EU countries – nearly ten times lower in some cases - that one wonders if Irish fishermen the most law abiding in Europe or if they are getting a free ride. Whatever about the inadequacy of the statutory instrument, most of the infringements are for pretty straightforward offences. The most recent report from the SFPA cited 23 incidents arising from inspections that led to 42 infringements being investigated. These were mostly to do with inadequate log book record keeping. Giving the inspection officials from the SFPA the benefit of the doubt for a minute and presuming they know what they are doing, if one gets penalty points on ones licence and one does not want to be struck out, the obvious thing to do is to obey the regulations. The Minister had secured the quotas that will ensure that there will be no livelihood in the industry in years to come due to overfishing. Why should one not keep doing Government-mandated overfishing, keep one's head down and wait for the points to expire?

A few powerful players in the industry have found a mechanism to get the penalty points system thrown out again and again, and the Department is not responding to the issue in a way that does not put the whole points system at risk, and is acting in a rushed and irresponsible under the pressure of fines and withdrawal of funding from the EU. At the same time, it is difficult for people to have much faith in the spirit of the Common Fisheries Policy regulations when the Government is securing quotas that endangers the whole industry in the long term.

See this speech in context