Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Many of the fundamental flaws identified by the fishing sector in the pre-legislative scrutiny remain. Today’s amendments highlight the lack of due process and natural justice in this regulatory system and the Government's bizarre commitment to an impaired approach, which must be called out.

Penalty points can be issued on a balance of probability rather than on the principle of beyond a reasonable doubt, as Deputies have said. The Government is enacting an ambiguous and worrying threshold that has no place in any State regulatory process. This will lead to confusion, conflict and, potentially, litigation.

Unbelievably, the Government is standing over the section which provide that even if an individual is found innocent of the alleged breaches in court, the penalty points applied under this legislation would not be deleted. That is simply wrong. Unfortunately, this represents a larger issue within the Department. The Government follows the Department's lead in how it interacts with coastal and island communities. The fisheries penalty points system was brought in suddenly, not by the Minister but by the Taoiseach when he was the acting Minister for the marine, without proper consultation with the sector. Not only is that poor policymaking, it is deeply disrespectful to fisher and coastal communities. Now, instead of welcoming a system that reprimands bad practice and acknowledges the good work of most of the sector, we have this mess. The coastal and island communities deserve better than this.

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