Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1170. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if there is a uniform standard across the EU in respect of export health certificates for shellfish; the body that enforces these standards in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52318/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The rules on how official controls are carried out in Member States are set out in Regulation (EU) 2017/625 which provides the legal basis for how food legislation is enforced to protect the consumer. This EU legislation ensures the implementation of key hygiene controls at each stage of the food processing and marketing chain in order to prevent transmission of pathogens through food, including in exports to third countries.

The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) is an independent statutory body which has responsibility for seafood safety controls and the enforcement of seafood safety law. As the competent authority for the export certification of Irish seafood, the SFPA provides assurance of compliance with EU food hygiene legislation.

The requirements of individual third countries in relation to food safety and health import standards are defined by the importing country and are set out in the statements provided in the relevant Export Health Certificates that accompany exports from the EU to those third countries.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1171. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when a new control plan for weighing fish will be in place; if this will take into account the damage caused to fish by quayside weighing and also the inconvenience of this policy for fishers fishing in small boats and landing at remote piers or on islands; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52319/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland was notified of a Commission Implementing Decision revoking the approval of the Irish control plan submitted for the weighing of fishery products. The European Commission has deemed that Ireland’s obligations arising from Regulation (EC) No 1224/2009 were not being met by the Irish control plan as the risk of non-compliance with the rules of the common fisheries policy could not be minimised.

The monitoring and control of fishing vessels within Ireland’s Exclusive Fisheries Zone are matters for the Irish control authorities. Under the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act, 2006, all operational issues of this nature are exclusively for the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) and the Naval Service. As Minister, I am precluded from getting involved in operational control matters such as this.

I understand that the SFPA submitted a Control Plan to the EU Commission for review and approval on 22nd September 2021. A new draft plan must be accepted by the Commission and formally adopted by it under legislation.

During EU Commissioner Virginius Sinkevicius' visit to Killybegs recently, representatives of the fishing industry set out the challenges facing the industry in the absence of a control plan that would allow weighing of fish in factories. I asked the Commissioner, during this visit, to give as much priority as possible to the Commission’s examination of Ireland’s draft control plan given the real challenges currently being faced by the industry.