The Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries and the Marine has made it clear he intends to examine, with “a good, long, hard look,” how sea fisheries protection operates in Ireland.
Conor McGuinness, Sinn Fein TD for Waterford, comes from a fishing family and says he is aware of “concern in coastal communities” about how the system of protection operates.
He has told the Marine Times that the Committee has a wide remit, which he intends to use fully to benefit the fishing industry as widely as possible.
“I want to take a good, long, hard look at how sea fisheries protection operates in Ireland.”
One of the issues brought arising regularly is the level of checking of Irish and non-Irish vessels and whether exactly similar inspections are carried out on both. In the June edition of the MARINE TIMES, online now and in print in the shops this week I give an example of interaction on this issue with the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority
Another Anomaly Identified
Another anomaly in regard to inspections has been Identified by the Chief Executive of the Irish South and West Fish Producers in Castletownbere, West Cork. Patrick Murphy, has raised another point in this regard: “Our boats are weighed, the fish are weighed, they are calculated, every species is calculated but, because we have a shared control regulation, fish caught by boats from other countries in our waters, they are allowed to put them into the back of a truck and they send the paperwork back to match what’s in the logbook. If this is claimed as a credible way to do things, why is it not applied to the Irish fleet – the same approach to Irish boats? You can’t have a scenario where there is one system for other countries and the same is not applied to us. There is an anomaly there and it needs to be addressed.”
It will be interesting to follow interaction between the Oireachtas Committee and the SFPA
