Conflict over Fishing bill likely to resume with independent publication

The disagreement over the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Bill is likely to continue this week with a decision by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Marine to publish its independent legal opinion.

The legal opinion, which says that there is no constitutional impediment to using administrative sanctions for fisheries offences, will be put before the Oireachtas as a public document.
The legal opinion prepared for the Oireachtas Committee by senior counsel Eanna Molloy contravenes the advice which Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey and Minister of State Pat the Cope Gallagher say they received from the Attorney General.

Both Ministers said the Attorney General has constitutional problems with changing from a criminal to administrative penalty system for fisheries management.
In a recent letter to joint Oireachtas Committee members, Mr Dempsey restated that he thought fishermen who were honest and obeyed the law had nothing to worry about in the Bill.
The Minister was reacting to eleven questions put to him by the Joint Oireachtas committee on foot of the legal report prepared for them by Mr Molloy.

The legal summary says the European Commission prefers an administrative system and that the Constitution allows for it under Articles 15 and 37.
In the summary Mr Molloy highlights some of the unfair aspects of the current fisheries management system. Implementing the quota system discriminates against individual Irish fishermen, he believes.