John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The points being made today by Fianna Fáil and in particular by our spokespersons, Deputies Gallagher and McConalogue, are fair and reasonable. We want to support a system that is fair and in principle we support the penalty points system. Anybody who is in breach of the law should see the appropriate treatment. However, we must be fair to an industry that contributes significantly to our economy and the people who work extremely hard and in extremely dangerous conditions to make a living. By and large, they are law-abiding and they have the interests of their industry and fishing stocks in their heart.

As has been pointed out, this has been challenged twice before through the courts and it has failed. Would we not be better spending our time introducing a statutory instrument that is fair and which works, with cross-party support, rather than trying to bulldoze through something that will again finish up in court and, in all likelihood, again be thrown out? We would be back to square one.

The issues with the penalty points are blatantly unfair and I will not repeat them. Let us look at them and get a workable system in place. We must be fair to people on appeal. There are many cases where people can be accused of something in the wrong and giving them ten days to put together an appeal is just not fair. A reasonable time would be 30 days. Ten days are allowed for a written submission as well but we must be reasonable to people. In any walk of life, if a person is accused of something, they must be given the opportunity to appeal it and have the time to put together a reasonable case for defence.

Listening to colleagues and Deputy Ryan, it seems that with a little bit of cross-party work we can put together a procedure that would have the support of the House and the effect of ensuring the vast majority of fishermen working within the law would have the law behind them, with those working outside the law being punished appropriately. I ask the Minister, rather than bulldozing this or using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, to work together with us in the interests of fair play to formulate a workable and fair statutory instrument.

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