Vol. 431 No. 2
99 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for the Marine the number of occasions on which Spanish or other foreign trawlers, intercepted for illegal fishing, were found to have secret or hidden holds; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
As I indicated in my reply to Deputy O'Keeffe on 2 March, I am extremely concerned with the emergence over the last year of the practice of having secret holds on fishing vessels. The Naval Service have detected 14 such cases in the last seven months.
At my request, the Department of Foreign Affairs has conveyed our serious concern at this development to the appropriate authorities in both the UK and Spain, has asked that the practice be investigated as a matter of urgency and that appropriate action be taken to eliminate it in so far as vessels on their respective registers may be concerned. In addition, the matter has been brought to the attention of the European Commission. I propose also to raise this issue at the next Council of Fisheries Ministers meeting in June.
Pending a response from the Spanish and UK authorities, may I assure the Deputy that, on checking the capacity plans of vessels detained, the Naval Service will continue to exercise the maximum vigilance so as to detect and deter those engaging in this practice.
