Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister knows the Labour Party's position on this legislation. We rehearsed the arguments in some detail on Second Stage. I support the views expressed by Senator Norris. I am concerned that this Bill is being tabled without pre-legislative scrutiny. My amendment No. 2 seeks to make an unfair situation for the owners of Irish vessels slightly fairer. If the State is preparing to copperfasten in law access rights to the zero-to-six nautical mile limit, which gives a right to foreign vessels to fish our inshore, it is incumbent on us as public representatives and on the Minister to establish ways in which we can restrict and manage that access as best we can, and to lay down transparent qualifying criteria that can be understood by everybody. We have to police this arrangement properly and I am sometimes at a loss to understand how. If this legislation is to pass, and I would prefer if it did not, we do not want to hand an unfair advantage to our competitors for all of the reasons I outlined on Second Stage. Restricting the size of the vessel is one way to do that. I look forward to the Minister's response to that.

Related to my amendment is the idea of regulating vessels from Northern Ireland, as the Minister clearly is committed to legislating for this. Even if, in the spirit of genuine North-South co-operation we were to figure out a way to do this, it is not clear to me that we can in some way define what constitutes being owned and operated in Northern Ireland. To the best of my knowledge, and I have researched this extensively in recent weeks in co-operation with some vessel owners, we cannot be specific about what comprises a Northern Irish vessel. These vessels are registered in the United Kingdom. There is no clear Northern Irish designation. Can the Minister reassure me and the vessel owners to whom we are accountable in the Republic of Ireland that this can be done logically and in law?He might address in his response any consideration he has given to an option I wish to see pursued, namely, the keeping of a register of vessels that would be open and accessible to members of the public, the citizens and vessel owners of the Irish Republic. That register could be compiled and made available and could be checked in real time to establish not just the whereabouts of foreign vessels, if I can use that phrase, but those that are qualified or otherwise to be here. We need to be clear about that. We need some reassurance about that. I am not convinced, from what I know about the registration of fishing vessels, that we can establish whether the vessels we are talking about are actually owned and operated in Northern Ireland or somewhere else. I have come across one case in particular in recent days of a vessel from across the water that is owned by a major Dutch company, is operating out of Belfast and was fishing and accessing mussel seed from beds on the Republic of Ireland inshore. In nobody's language does that mean Northern Irish vessel. The Minister might try to reassure Members about how he can confirm and clarify the qualification criteria he will lay down for vessels that would be able to benefit from this legislation and, most importantly, whether that is feasible and possible in law.