Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to the amendment that relates to the increase from 30 working days to 60 working days. I think that is reasonable. It moves the requirement from one calendar month to two calendar months. I was interested in the discussion of working days because in the fishing industry every day is a working day. I presume the amendment relates to continuous days. It is reasonable because the nature of the fishing industry is such that someone could be on a ten- or 14-day trip or something like that. People who are notified of these penalties on a fishing trip will not be able to prepare a defence or arguments in respect of that.

In addition, while people are waiting for a case to be heard, they will continue to try to make a living. They will be at sea for periods between that time so in order to allow people time to actually put up the best defence they can, it is reasonable to extend the time. It is not an unreasonable time in terms of how the system that will be delivered will work. To have an actual two-month period is not unreasonable. I ask the Minister to take that on board and to accept this amendment because I believe it is worthwhile.

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