The Spanish particularly are guilty and seem to be amenable to no law. It is impossible to monitor how many are fishing here illegally, what their catch is and what species they are landing. They are buying up British and French boats and a small number of Irish boats and operating them under flags of convenience. These boats are supposed to be in a port of their flag state for a certain number of days each year, but no one is monitoring the situation. The arrangement on policing is very loose with no apparent will or desire to tackle it, which seems to suit the bigger states. The overall situation is set to become much worse unless there is a concerted effort on the part of our law enforcement services and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to change it.