I am aware of, and share, the concerns of fishermen about the activities off our coasts of UK-registered Spanish fishing boats who disregard Community fishing control regulations.
The operations of all fishing boats, including those of UK-registered Spanish boats, are monitored closely at sea by the Naval Service and onshore by my Department's sea fishery officers. Over the past three years 16 of these boats have been detained for suspected infringements of Community fishery regulations. Fifteen of the boats in question were subsequently charged with fishery offences. To date seven cases have been dealt with in the courts and fines totalling £144,000 have been levied.
The enforcement of UK boat quotas, established for the purposes of managing quota allocations, is a matter primarily for the UK authorities. The Irish protection services do not have a function with regard to the monitoring of internal UK management regimes. My Department's sea fishery officers when inspecting landings from UK-registered Spanish boats are concerned mainly with ensuring that the boats comply with all relevant Community regulations. It is, of course, open to the UK authorities to take action against any of these boats on the basis of periodic returns which my Department send to the UK.
I would not accept any suggestion that my Department have not been monitoring landings by these boats at Castletownbere. Under an arrangement with the boats' agents, my Department's sea fishery officer at the port is informed in advance of all landings and despite an increase in recent months in the number of landings, periodic monitoring has continued to take place.
The level of monitoring is designed to ensure that Community regulations are being adhered to by the UK-registered boats landing in the port. The position will be kept under constant review and I am prepared to consider strengthening these arrangements if necessary.
Boats fishing off our coasts which land their catches at our ports help the local economy by creating employment onshore and also make it easier to monitor the activities in our waters.
