John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 128 and 166 together.

The Court of Justice of the European Communities in case C-38/05 entered a judgment in December 2005 against Ireland which related to the provision of catch and fishing effort reports for the years 1999 and 2000. However, in so far as these reports are concerned, the Department had prior to that judgment submitted these to the Commission, first, on 29 April 2005 — effort reports under Article 19i of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2847/93 of 12 October 1993 and, second, on 27 May 2005 — catch reports under Articles 15(4) and 18(1) of Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2847/93 of 12 October 1993.

The general situation is that due to staffing shortages and the need to develop new technology to respond to a greatly increased and more complex reporting requirement to the Commission, particularly in relation to fishing effort, it had not proved possible for some time to submit all of the various reports required under the Common Fisheries Policy within the various deadlines. The Department recognised that there was a need to secure improved delivery of the necessary reports and it kept the Commission periodically apprised of its plans to secure such improvement.

I am pleased to report that such improvement has now been secured. This has resulted from, first, advances in staffing terms from a complement of some 27 administrative and specialist control staff in 1999 to a planned 101 by early next year and, second, there has also been considerable investment on the installation of new technology in the form of the integrated fisheries information system, IFIS, which embraces all the key information requirements on catches and fleets. Through a combination of these two developments in particular, which have involved extensive work over a period of years, Ireland is now in a position to discharge its reporting obligations to a very large extent in a timely manner. Catch reports for 2005 were submitted on schedule throughout last year and insofar as the effort reports for 2005 are concerned, all 12 of these were submitted to the Commission last week as well as the January 2006 effort report.

It is appropriate to emphasise that the CFP reporting requirement is highly complex and extensive and it will continue to pose a strong organisational challenge in the future. The Department, therefore, intends to continue to develop the reporting functions of the new IFIS system so as to facilitate compliance with all reporting obligations in relation to the Common Fisheries Policy.