Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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203. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of fishing vessel owners who failed to return logbooks to the Marine Survey Office or forwarded them without crew agreements in each of the years 2014 to 2016; the action that was taken on those that were non-compliant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3535/17]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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204. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of log books that were returned by fishing vessel owners to the Marine Survey Office in each of the years 2014 to 2016; the number of these that had crew agreements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3536/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 203 and 204 together.

Owners and Skippers of Irish Fishing Vessels of 25 Gross Tonnage and upwards are required under the Merchant Shipping Acts to maintain a log for the vessel (an Official Logbook) and to enter into an agreement with their crew (a Crew Agreement).  These two requirements are combined into a single document.

During 2012, in consultation with the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) and the Irish Fishermen's Organisation (IFO), the existing Fishing Vessel Logbook was reviewed and updated by my Department, to provide a more user friendly document, while highlighting statutory requirements and obligations. The newly published Fishing Vessel Logbook entitled 'Crew Agreement, List of Crew and Official Logbook of a Fishing Vessel of 25 Tons Tonnage or Upwards', was effective from 1st January 2013. 

Fishing Vessel Logbooks should be utilised on, or as soon as a vessel is next operational, after 1st January and 1st July each year.  They should run for a maximum period of six months, expiring on the next day following 30th day of June or 31st day of December, as the case may be.

Commercial sea fishing is regulated by the Fisheries Acts, 1959 to 2006 and comes under the remit of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.  Therefore my Department would not maintain data on the number of licensed fishing vessels operating at any period in time.  The requirement to submit Logbooks to my Department arises in the context of the safe operation of the vessel and the welfare of the crew. The Marine Survey Office (MSO) of my Department carries out surveys and inspections of fishing vessels and compliance with the requirements regarding  official logbooks is enforced by the MSO, including where appropriate the prosecution of offenders through the courts.

The number of FV Logbooks returned to my Department for the years 2014 to 2016 are detailed in the following table.  I should point out that the figure for 2016 reflects the number of logbooks received to date.  As logbooks for this year are still being received by my Department, it is envisaged that this figure will increase over the coming weeks.

Numbers of Fishing Vessel Logbooks Returned by Year