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Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Jackie Cahill: ...off their mobile phones. The purpose of today's meeting is to examine the weighing of fisheries products. The committee will hear from representatives of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA. Since 28 February, the legal requirement of mask-wearing in all settings has been removed. However, it is still good practice to continue to use a face masks or coverings, particularly...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Mr. Paschal Hayes: We thank the committee for the invitation to appear today. We welcome the interest in the SFPA and its work as the regulator for the sea-fisheries and seafood sectors. We also welcome the opportunity to outline how we seek to ensure effective and fair regulation of the areas under the authority’s mandate in order to support safe, authentic and sustainable seafood....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Mr. Paschal Hayes: The SFPA's duty is to implement the laws passed by this House, encompassing both Irish and EU regulations. Committee members are no doubt aware that weighing provisions are among the considerations of an ongoing revision of the EU fishery control regulation. If new or amended laws and regulations pertaining to the sea fisheries and seafood sectors are passed by this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: ..., IFSA. They have worked hard to try to make the lives of fishermen a little easier in what are extremely difficult times. I hope this will be the first of many meetings we will have with the SFPA and perhaps with other organisations. A massive gap needs to be bridged between the man or woman on the ground and the SFPA. This is obvious to the whole country and perhaps the whole world....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Thank you. The "Yes" was perfect. When the SFPA takes the owner of a fishing vessel to court, it is represented by two senior civil servants. Am I right in saying this? These are Cecil Beamish and Josephine Kelly from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Has this been the case during the last five years? Again, I ask Mr. Hayes for a yes-no answer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Okay. If it was the case, how could the SFPA declare itself to be acting as an independent body?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Mr. Paschal Hayes: The answer to the initial question was "No". The SFPA is independent in the performance of its duties. The two officials the Deputy named work for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and have no function in regard to the SFPA.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Mr. Paschal Hayes: The Deputy would have to ask them that. I do not know the answer. Well, I do know the answer, actually. I know they have represented the Department, but certainly not the SFPA.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Will Mr. Hayes outline the official working relationship between the SFPA and the Department?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Mr. Paschal Hayes: The SFPA is an agency that is independent in the performance of its duties. Its role is set out by this House under the 2006 Act. Our funding comes through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine via its Vote, which is allocated by this House. The Department has responsibility for the corporate governance of the organisation, but that is the only role the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

...of Public Expenditure and Reform has set out a code of practice for the governance of State agencies. There is an arrangement in the shape of a performance contract between the Department and SFPA, as set out under that code of practice for the corporate governance of State agencies.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: I thank Mr. O'Mahony. The last time we had witnesses here from the SFPA, the then chair, Dr. Susan Steele - who has since moved to a different job and we wish her the best with that - claimed there was a good working relationship between the SFPA and the industry and its representatives. This committee, however, has been strongly advised that this is not the case. I ask Mr. Hayes to inform...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Jackie Cahill: In fairness, to ask the chair of the SFPA if he has a good working relationship with an organisation is not a fair question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Yes, but this is something the organisations are concerned with. The SFPA has consistently stated that it wishes to work with the organisations. I could be wrong here and perhaps it has a great relationship with all the representative organisations. We certainly need to know, however, if there is a better relationship with one above another, because that is not what is being said out there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Okay. Throughout the Killybegs blue whiting controversy, the SFPA has publicly insisted that it has continually offered the option to the vessels landing that they could use the pelagic flow scales. This, however, was done without specifying that the SFPA was ordering that this state-of-the-art system, which was declared suitable by the High Court as being fit for purpose, must have the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Under whose instruction is the SFPA employing methods of monitoring and regulation that are not being used anywhere else in the EU? Are such decisions taken by Mr. Hayes or by the SFPA management board? Are the instructions handed down from above?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Mr. Miche?l O'Mahony: The instructions are set out in the EU regulations. The SFPA is the regulator and implements the regulations. The regulations come to us from the legislators, including the Houses of the Oireachtas, and we implement them. As Mr. Hayes said, the default position, the starting point or the baseline of the regulations is such that the fish are weighed immediately on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Should Mr. Hayes, as a sole member of the board of the SFPA, support stakeholders in their view that commercially sensitive information coming into the hands of the authority should and must not be shared public other than in accordance with the law?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Are the data held by the SFPA not subject to the laws on the confidentiality of data and data protection of both Ireland and the EU?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Weighing of Fisheries Products: Discussion (18 May 2022)

Michael Collins: Various data that come before the SFPA. Are they protected such that they do not get out to the general public?