I have no difficulty in our implementing the law and suitably punishing those who transgress, but that will happen in isolation. Other countries will not be as committed to conservation, nor will they implement it with the same vigour as Ireland. This is not a situation which arose yesterday or last week – for decades we have seen fishermen from other European countries openly flout the law by fishing where they should not, catching prohibited species and invariably exceeding their quotas. Do these Europeans know what a quota is or if it exists at all? Anyone involved in the business knows that boats are landing illegally sized fish in Spanish ports, to which a blind eye is being turned.