They claim the Irish fishing industry was delivered a serious blow yesterday by Minister Coveney after he signed into law last week a new Statutory Instrument which they say penalises Irish fishermen even after they are acquitted in court of having committed a fisheries offence.
This new Statutory Instrument was drafted after the High Court found that the previous Statutory Instrument was not fit for purpose.
The EU penalty point system for fishermen is similar to that for driving offences where a fishing licence holder may accumulate points over a period of time eventually resulting in the licensee being disqualified for a period from fishing.
A previous High Court decision on this issue by Justice Tony O’Connor ruled that such a system was moving away from any normal legal procedures.
However Francis O’ Donnell, Chief Executive officer of the Irish Fish Producers Organisation has said that it is inconceivable that anyone would draft legislation which allows penalty points to be applied to an Irish Fishing licence after they have been acquitted in court.
“What is worse is that a minister has signed this in view of the recent High Court decision. The Irish fishing industry was not consulted on this issue which now allows the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority to apply points to a licence holder even though they have not committed any offence.
“It’s an incredible and extremely pernicious development in Irish Fisheries and mind boggling that anyone could stand over such a piece of legislation. We now have to go back to the High Court which I believe is deliberate as they know individual fishermen cannot afford the cost of taking such legal action bearing in mind that it is the taxpayers money that the state will use to mount a defence to any challenge”
Mr O Donnell concluded that the relationship between the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine and the Irish Fishing Industry has now reached an all time low.
“Nothing can be considered lower than penalising someone who has been found innocent by a court of having committed an offence. There is neither a legal nor moral basis for this. It is totally unacceptable and it’s important that the public are made aware of this.”
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