Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 141: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources when he expects to introduce a mechanism for the immediate electronic logging of fish catches and landings for all boats in Irish waters following a recent decision by the European Commission to approve such a development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5362/07]

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I have strongly pushed for the use of new technologies that would strengthen Ireland's capabilities to monitor and control fishing activity, including giving the Naval Service access to catch levels of vessels in advance of boardings. In this regard, Ireland has been at the forefront in pushing for the introduction of electronic logbooks and I have worked closely with the EU Commission on the early adoption of their proposal. Council Regulation 1966/2006 on the electronic recording and reporting of fishing activities, and as a means of remote sensing, was adopted late last year.

The two main provisions of the Regulation are: to oblige fishing vessels to record and submit their logbooks, transhipment declaration or their landing declarations electronically, at least once a day, with the first sales notes also being electronically recorded; and to require Member States to be able to monitor and locate their vessels and match this with their VMS system in order to assess the presence of fishing vessels in a particular area.

This Regulation is particularly important for Ireland because of our disproportionately large European Economic Zone (EEZ) and the high level of activity by other EU vessels in our waters. The use of electronic fishing logbooks will also facilitate earlier and more accurate transmission of data, direct from the fishing vessel, rather than after the vessel returns to port as in the current manual system.

Council Regulation 1966/2006 which lays down an overall framework for the introduction of electronic recording and reporting of fisheries activities. The Commission is working on the detailed implementing rules which will be discussed with the Member States shortly. The date of implementation is dependant on these detailed rules being adopted. Ireland is pressing for as early a date as possible in order to give ourselves access to this useful control tool. Electronic logbooks will be mandatory for: vessels over 24 metres in overall length 24 months after the implementing rules come into force; and vessels between 15 and 24 metres 42 months after the implementing rules come into force.

The introduction of these new provisions are, I am convinced a major step forward in giving the control authorities tools to effectively address illegal fishing and the non-recording and misreporting of landings.