Analysis by Tom MacSweeney
Rebuilding trust is difficult to do, but that is at the core of the detailed report by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries and Marine Affairs into the operation of Ireland’s sea fisheries protection system.
Can it be done?
It will be challenging.
After four public hearings involving the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA), fishing and seafood industry representatives and Minister of State for Fisheries Timmy Dooley, the committee said it had listened carefully to the concerns raised by the sector.
Committee Rapporteur Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said members had “listened to the voices of this industry and found their calls to be compelling and reasonable”.
The committee has broadly sided with concerns expressed by the industry.
Its report contains 14 recommendations covering a wide range of proposed reforms arising from the hearings, during which some TDs and Senators voiced strong criticism of the SFPA.
The authority’s operations were robustly defended by senior officials led by Executive Chair Paschal Hayes, who later announced he would leave the post earlier than scheduled. No public reason has been given for his departure.
Among the report’s key recommendations is the establishment of “an appropriate Ombudsman or other supervisory body empowered to consider complaints and to interrogate the effectiveness of the SFPA”.
The proposal also extends to oversight of all agencies involved in fisheries matters.
This year marks 20 years since the establishment of the SFPA and the introduction of the Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006, which created the authority.
Mac Lochlainn said “it is timely to review and amend that legislation to reflect the lessons of the last two decades”.
Committee Chair Conor McGuinness said the fisheries protection system “must be rebuilt with trust and a better system created”.
“The need for a credible, proportionate and consistent approach to sea fisheries protection has been an important theme in the Committee’s work,” he said.
“Root and branch reform is required.”
The report warns that positions risk becoming further entrenched unless meaningful reform is introduced.
What happens next will depend on whether Government is prepared to revise the current system and respond to the industry concerns highlighted during the hearings.
