Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I have described it and have compared it to the penalty points system for motor traffic offences, which again is the civil sphere, it is penalty points we are talking about here, not criminal convictions. That is why the balance of probabilities is being used in regard to defining a civil penalty, a civil penalty being the application of a penalty point on a licence. If after accruing a significant number of penalty points over a period of time you get to certain thresholds, then there are penalties in terms of suspensions. It is quite similar and akin to the road traffic penalty points system for drivers. If you drove home today and accrued two penalty points on your licence, that would be a civil offence. If gardaí stopped you for a more serious offence and it was in the courts, you are obviously in a criminal situation then.

We are the last country in Europe within the Common Fisheries Policy to introduce a penalty points system. There is an obligation on us to have a penalty points system as part of an effective control system for fisheries. At the moment the only system we have is the criminal system, so the only way to provide any type of sanction at the moment for any infringement that might happen on the water is for criminal proceedings to be taken against the fisherman or fisherwoman, for him or her to be brought to court and for there to be a conviction. There is nothing other than that. Obviously, the threshold would be much higher, as it always would be for anything that is criminal. We have been in a difficult position in recent years because we do not actually have what the European Union regards as an effective control system. We have a big gap because there are no penalty points.

It would be akin to doing away with the penalty points system for road traffic offences and saying that, unless the threshold is met whereby you end up in court, there are no sanctions in between. Ultimately, that deterrent factor and civil aspect within the control system would be gone. We are looking to introduce that civil band to control fisheries. It is an obligation on all member states to do that. There was an obligation on us to have had that done by 2012, so much so that the EU has taken legal proceedings against us for being non-compliant and for not having followed through on our obligations and responsibilities as a member state. Other countries within the Common Fisheries Policy have penalty points systems in place. Ireland is the only one that does not. Given it is a civil penalty and given this is about putting penalty points on a licence, were you to apply the same threshold that ultimately is used in the courts, then you do not really have an administrative system.