Results 1-20 of 24 for sfpa segment:8002718

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Jackie Cahill: I would like to welcome to the meeting the following representatives of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, Dr. Susan Steele, chair of the authority, Mr. Andrew Kinneen, authority member, and Mr. Micheál O'Mahony, chief scientific officer, who all appearing remotely. You are all very welcome to the meeting this morning. We received your opening statement and it has already...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: I thank the committee for creating a slot so that we could bring in the SFPA this morning. This is something I have called for since it previously attended the committee and I welcome our witnesses. There is a crisis in the fishing industry which has been going on for quite some time. In the past 12 months, in particular, we have stumbled from one crisis to another, leading to what we have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...hear how many questions I have, you might be in shock. I will go through as many as I can and maybe I will come back in later so as to give other members a chance. On the weighing crisis, the SFPA submitted a draft new control plan in December 2020 and again in 2021 further information was submitted. This was four or five months before any control plan was revoked. Was that the case?...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...I am aware of the issues in the fishing industry. I welcome the opportunity to speak to the committee and address some of the questions. Deputy Collins mentioned that he was going to write to the SFPA. The SFPA would like to extend an invitation to him, as we are based in Clonakilty not far from the Deputy. He will always be welcome. We prioritise meetings with Members of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...with that matter then too. We are trying to help the industry to deal with what has to be managed at the moment. We would not like to leave the committee with the impression that members of the SFPA are attending every landing and standing over people to make them tip out their fish and so on. That is not the way we do business. In fact, we try to adopt a supportive and de-escalated...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...had with industry many times but it is just to be aware that that is the language. On the question of whether we shared the audit with any NGOs or were there any leaks, I assure members that the SFPA takes its data duties incredibly seriously. If we have leaks, we will look at them. As we also take our protected disclosures and the whistleblower Act seriously, the answer to that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I welcome our guests from the SFPA. I have a number of questions but first I want to acknowledge the 14-page substantial submission the SFPA has made to the committee. I want to refer to a number of references in it and that will link in with my questions. The authority welcomed the invitation for its representatives to appear before the committee but expressed frustration that it has not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...received and I thank him for the opportunity to respond. I recognise a great deal of what he has put on the table as thought processes I would have had 13 years ago when I commenced working with SFPA. This is not rocket science; it is weighing dead fish. Surely, that should be easy to do and easy enough to control but the reality is that it is not. That is not stretching the reality;...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: .... The industry had no ability to defend itself. As far as I know, there has been one conviction - one - in a court of law that followed the NSAI taking that prosecution, none as a result of the SFPA, despite it being a very strong regulator, arguably the strongest in Europe. There was only one prosecution, yet it led to allegations of an industry that was criminal in its intent. I put...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Dr. Susan Steele: I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for his contribution and the endorsement of the SFPA as the strongest regulator of fishing. It is not a matter of being either strong or weak but of being effective. I hope that in all our lifetimes we will never see any fish stock collapses. I say that for all of us in the coastal communities and throughout Ireland. The role we play is very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

..., then get a little broader and then circle back again. I will start by agreeing with him on the generality of the point he makes. We will not sit here and say the weighing of fish at landing, or SFPA controls of the weighing of fish at landing, are a step towards improving fish quality. That is simply not the case, to get that out straight away. The words "quality" and "safety" are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Tim Lombard: ...the future control plan, what will be different compared with the previous plan? What will the major changes be? How will those affect matters, in particular the weighing on piers? What does the SFPA propose will be the key elements that ensure joined-up thinking between the Department, the regulator and the fishing industry in order that the plan is workable on the pierside?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...to having any meeting or dialogue. There is the consultative committee, which was set up under the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act. It comprises the industry and consults with the SFPA. We have met the industry on these issues, but as part of the review, we are resetting that relationship as well. We are open to the Senator's suggestion in his first question because...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...points of concern. As I said earlier in this meeting, we are encouraged by feedback we have had from the Irish Fish Producers Association, IFPA, in terms of the written submission it made to the SFPA as part of our consultation with the industry. It clearly indicated it is well disposed to looking at the measures we have in place and whether it needs them refined or improved, again, in a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: ...and a range of people who are interested in the marine. I have been a spokesperson for my own party on fisheries and the marine for about a year and I have engaged extensively, including with the SFPA, to try to get the wider perspectives. I find the situation astonishing and I really want to reiterate this point. The SFPA has increased its budget, increased its staff and increased its...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...to bring attention back to the resourcing of the organisation, which we mentioned at the outset. I will run over it again because it is one of the keys. The key areas are the actual roles of the SFPA. Our remit is the regulation of the commercial sea-fishing industry in compliance with the CFP. We also regulate official controls for food safety for all wild and farmed fish, including...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I have one question. If the SFPA is not the most effective and strongest regulator in Europe then which is?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...been imposed on the entire fishing fleet, yet not one fisherman has seen any evidence or shared any information that was compiled by the 2018 audit or the 2019 administrative inquiry, which the SFPA carried out. Why withhold evidence and yet proceed to punish the entire sector? A real dangerous situation is happening here. The SFPA said that it has not shared any copy with anybody...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

...Lochlainn. Deputy Collins highlighted the issues arising out of reports leaked to the media or information coming to the media that is detrimental to the reputation of the industry and so on. The SFPA can certainly speak for itself and we engage with media, as we should as a public organisation, but we never leak confidential material. I can give that assurance directly to Deputy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Christopher O'Sullivan: ...references in the opening statement to the weighing equipment and the methods of weighing fish in the factories by the sector. Will the witnesses talk me through the process and the equipment the SFPA, as the regulator, uses for the weighing of fish in order to do checks and so on? I would be interested to hear that. One of the functions of the SFPA, as stated in the opening...