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MARINE TIMES NEWS March 25th:
When Guessing Wrong Can Get You A Criminal Record!

The Joint Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs met on Tuesday, 24 March, to resume discussions on Sea Fisheries Protection Issues. The meeting heard from representatives from the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association; CEO Brendan Byrne and Chairman Kenny Ward.

Photo: Cormac Burke, IFSA

Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Conor McGuinness said: “The Committee has previously heard from seafood and fishing industry representatives, the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority and the Minister of State for Fisheries, Deputy Timmy Dooley, to examine matters around Sea Fisheries Protection and the legislative framework for the SFPA. Members now look forward to hearing from representatives of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association and discussing the views and concerns of the sector on the operation of the SFPA and the implementation and enforcement of sea fisheries regulations and legislation, and how it impacts the Irish seafood industry.”

In advance of the Committee meeting, the IFPEA provided the members with a detailed written opening statement and owing to time constraints at the meeting were unable to read, however each member received a copy in advance and also provided to us in the Marine times for our readers.

We advise everyone to read the statement to help understand the current situation fishermen and processors must endure in our fishing harbours and factories …..

Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association - IFPEA

Oireachtas Committee 24th March 2026 Opening Statement.

IFPEA Background and history

The Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association represents all fish processors and exporters within Ireland, we were established in 1977 and we represent Pelagic, Whitefish, Shellfish sectors as well as the fish retailers from single/sole operators/traders to the largest entities within the State.

We as a policy promote the highest levels of sustainability and best practice both in conservation of stocks, and the promotion of quality Irish Fish product globally. Our members at present have export markets in more than 100 countries world-wide. The processing sector at present employs 3,600 people, and our active members represent 90% of those employed.

Bord Bia data for 2025 confirms that the value of Irelands fish exports was €672,155,916 million an increase of 22% in value over the 2024 data set, which is equal to an additional €123m of export value for Ireland. This growth is on part due to the price inflation of fish over the previous 12 months – in particular pelagic stocks such as Mackerel.

Bord Bia data confirms that the total volume of fish exports from Ireland in 2025 was 200,022 mt tonnes, an increase of 48,717 mt over 2024 but compared to 2021 when we exported 290,400 mt of fish we are still down by 33 % inside of 4 years. The increase in 2025 was due to the reopening of the West African markets for our Blue Whiting products, as previously in 2023/2024 we lost these markets due to transhipment of cheap blue whiting through the Faroe Islands from the Russian Federation fishing fleet.

Irelands principal markets for fish exports are, France €141 million, the United Kingdom €93.4 million and Spain €63.1 million.

Regionally our main market penetration is as follows; EU 27 €398 m, UK €93.4 m, Asian countries €89 m, Africa €65m, North America €15m.

Ireland has massive market growth potential across Asia, in North America and Africa as well as in the Mediterranean basin where our premium shellfish product is in high demand.

Focus on Sea fisheries and Maritime/SFPA resumed

Today, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs rightly seeks the opinions and views of the Processing sector on; Sea Fisheries Protection issues (resumed) The IFPEA completely support the principles and best practices of sustainability and proper management of stocks, in fact our approach over the past 4 years has been extremely proactive in that regard. Ireland has correctly set the gold standard of how fish processing should be monitored in order to obtain the highest possible standards of compliance with the EU set regulations and rules.

The SFPA have an extremely important role to play as the regulator in maintaining and promoting compliance of the regulation governing the Common Fisheries Policy, and all subsequent rules, regulations and implementation acts set out by the EU. It is essential that Irelands competent authority carry out their role in a fair, equal and balanced manner, their duties must be carried out in an equal manner of application, in a proportionate and transparent way for all.

Over the past 10 years a well-hidden “positive “national statistic is that Ireland has consistently been in the top three most compliant Member States within the European Union in terms of compliance and enforcement procedures and regulations.

Even groups such as the Environmental Justice Foundation (partnered with Oceana, the Nature Conservancy, Pew Charitable Trust and the World Wildlife Fund - EU group acknowledge Ireland’s positive enforcement level when on the 29th October 2025 they stated in their publication EU IUU Fishing Regulation;

“The report finds that Ireland is well above the required minimum threshold, inspecting well above 30% of landings “

Yet in the very same report it states the following;

“Most concerning is the Netherlands, which continue to receive large volumes of seafood from high-risk flag states, yet they still do not meet the minimum inspection requirement”

It is regrettable that some within our country wish to put out a false narrative regarding our fishing industry, indeed the IFPEA noted that the weekend prior to the last appearance of the SFPA before the Oireachtas Fisheries and Maritime Joint Committee; similar attempts were made in certain media quarters to blacken and undermine the reputation of the fishing sectors but the IFPEA acknowledge that Committee Members dealt directly with that very issue on the day of the meeting.

The reality of our working environment

The Irish pelagic fish processors, have invested heavily, committing massive own resources into new weighing equipment, CCTV systems and water separating devices, etc since 2022. The total financial commitment of the seven remaining pelagic processors was € 2.550 million (without any grant aid).

What our members done during a period of 6 months of transformation, was as follows replace and renew all flow scales weighing equipment with the latest, newest state of the art flow scales weighing systems on the markets – standardised across all the factories. The equipment has the capacity to zero out, every thirty minutes to prevent any interference – nowhere in Europe has done this since by the way.

Installed over 80 CCTV cameras across our factories with live feed images to the SFPA offices in real time, the Offices are located on the first floor of the Killybegs Harbour Centre building. We further retain these images for six months at present, initially back in 2022 the CCTV images were to be retained for 31 days but as of the 10th January 2026 the requirement is for 6 months retention of all CCTV images and recordings.

That is 370,000 hours of CCTV images of fish being landed into each factory from a tanker truck, images of these same fish being weighed within each factory and the sampling of 25 kg baskets within each factory, with the weighing of the that very sample also covered by camera and image live fed to SFPA Offices and retained by us for 6 months.

CCTV Images are also available if required of vessels off-loading fish into the pier side water separator / weighing system.

In addition to all the above - industry providing live feed CCTV images in real time to the SFPA offices, and industry retaining the vey same images for six months on our data retention systems.

Industry must upon request from the SFPA, provide full images retained of at least three landings that will be randomly selected by the SFPA, and must be forwarded by us to the Clonakilty Office within three working days. The costs of obtaining a specialist to download these high-definition images and CCTV hours, what can be depending upon the landing over two days of recording must be paid by us.

Incidentally, on the occasion of the Minister Martin Heydon’s visit to Killybegs last month (20th February) one of the factories was downloading images upon receipt of request from the SFPA and the Minister was able to observe it himself.

We now need to address and focus our attention onto the bureaucracy including the paper workload with particular attention on declarations, paper requirements, required returns during prior and while fish are on premises, including emails required to transport a fish from the pier to the factory (average distance of 500 metres) and eventually onto markets inclusive.

Yet provision is made within existing EU Regulations that no transport documents are required when transporting fish for less than 25km. Ireland is the only country within Europe that uses a Transport Document for moving fish for a distance of less than 1,000 meters. Since January 2026, that transport document must be emailed from the cab of the lorry on the pier to the SFPA office, that office is no more than 35 – 45 meters from where the lorry is parked. Failure to email prior to moving the lorry is an offence.

Despite industry investing over €2.550 million of our own resources into updating our weighing equipment which involved as previously outline the purchasing of all new flow scales technology, our actual weights which are legally recorded on all official documents are now determined by weights extrapolation from the percentage makeup and contents of a 25 kg basket – that 25 kg basket costs approximately €19.99 before vat to purchase. The flow scales equipment for 100% accuracy of weighing costs typically €89,450 per unit before vat – some factories have multiple weighing units in their premises. Installation costs of the flow scales system are substantial and additional to the unit cost.

In Ireland if your estimate or guesstimate is incorrect as a result of sampling by means of the 25 kg basket it is a criminal offence. No other EU Member States imposes such a sanction.

For the past 6 months, the SFPA, Marine Institute along with the pelagic processors have undertaken a study including analysis of the current sampling procedure. The conclusion is clear, it is not possible to get accuracy of weights by means of sampling and weights extrapolation. Yet, unfortunately Irelands pelagic industry has been forced to use this flawed sampling procedure/system since 2023 by the EU and the SFPA.

Sampling has cost our industry millions in lost opportunity;

Sampling as a regulation – was only ever intended to be used as an indication of catch composition. Sampling cannot be used to determine actual weights or species make up of an entire landing, particularly if it is based on a 25 kg sample breakdown of species composition for every 25 metric tonnes brought to the factory. At present we are expected to use this 25 kg sample to accurately record the make-up of the entire landing by means of weights extrapolation over the entire landing on a percentage basis stemming from the basket makeup in the first instance. Copy of Marine Institute report attached with opening statement.

The reputational damage of this Irish approach of sampling and weighing through extrapolation of a 25 kg basket, has put back the ability of the Irish Pelagic processing industry to attract landings from other EU Member States and third countries years, especially for the more valuable landings such as mackerel, Horse Mackerel. Whilst this sampling regulation may be common to all EU Member States it is only adversely impacting on Ireland.

The IFPEA now wish to provide you with a brief overview of the paperwork, declarations and returns required by the SFPA on industry once you land fish into Ireland. Pelagic Processor Documentary Requirements

1) Skipper or Agent must submit a Prior Landing Notification, a minimum of four hours entry into Port, stating the quantity and species of the catch onboard and the ETA of the vessel to the Port.

2) Skipper or Agent must submit Masters Statement, stating what is onboard, where it was caught, species, estimated volume and which processor will receive it.

3) After entry to Harbour and inspection by SFPA, SFPA issue an Authorisation to Discharge.

4) If it is a monitored landing and weighing must be performed on landing, the processor will be issued a Control Supervised Weighing Slip.

5) If it is a monitored landing and weighing must be performed on landing, the processor must issue a weighing slip from the weigh bridge for each truck.

6) For Each Truck taking fish from the vessel, the truck driver must write and issue an approved Transport Document.

7) Prior to that truck leaving the pier, and arriving at the factory, the truck driver must or factory person must send a digital email copy of that transport document to the SFPA office.

8) During the landing, each processor must take a 25KG Sample from each truckload to determine species breakdown, and this must be recorded for each sample. At the end of the landing, the samples are tallied to determine the overall composition of the species in the catch by extrapolation. That document is a Bycatch Weigh Sampling Record.

9) At the completion of the landing, before midnight, the processor must complete the Official Pelagic Weighing Record, which is a paginated document container all information and quantities related to the weighing activity.

10) Within 24 hours of the completion of the landing, the processor must complete the Official Sales Note on the online portal, detailing the quantities and price etc.

11) Each Month you must submit a monthly Stock Report detailing the balance of product in your coldstore.

12) You must also list before the 15th of each month, all of the Product Intakes, and Product Dispatches from your coldstore for that month.

13) Before you ship goods outside the EU, you must apply no later than 48 hours in advance of container loading, for a Health Certificate Application.

14) If you ship fish produced, most likely you will require a Catch Certificate, stating who caught the fish, where, the vessel licence, the master details, etc ensuring that the fish is legally caught and not IUU.

15) Throughout the year / season, the processor is subject to a minimum number (Usually 4) of Ad Hoc Weigh Permit inspections by the SFPA where various documentary and physical checks are carried out by the SFPA onsite and report issued.

That is in addition to the CCTV oversight and random selection of at least three landings per annum for further in-depth scrutiny of the overall recording of same, which must be forwarded to the SFPA by industry. The above is the required paper trail or returns place don Irish industry, no where in Europe would you have the extent and requirement placed on you, many member states have some of the above but none would have all of the above.

How did we come to this juncture, as we welcome the review and re-evaluation by the Minister.

The best possible perspective on the SFPA is found and articulated by The Price Waterhouse Coopers Report of April 2020; the Report based on the organisational capability of the SFPA, the report states the following;

Here are a number of extracts from said report - page 8 - “In seeking to address the issues highlighted in the report, we note that the Authority does not have the support or direction of an independently established body “

On page 6 of the same report, it states - “The SFPA as an organisation, needs to be reset and unified with clear and agreed articulation of its mandate. The SFPA needs to focus as a priority on its primary functions. In essence, the SFPA needs a clear focus on an accepted vision and core mission, with agreed objectives supported by its core expertise. This will need to be further supported by a clear and accepted framework of responsibility, accountability, behaviours and authority in order to drive management effectiveness as a matter of urgency “

On Page 7 it states - “Port officers are operating with a degree of independence which is influenced by a range of factors,”

It is pointless quoting the entire report, and it is equally as clear that serious issues remain within and how the SFPA function whether that is in the pelagic sector as outlined or elsewhere in the White fish and Shellfish sectors. It should not be interpreted that we are overly focusing on pelagic sector, the issues we highlight are across the board. We have a state agency which has a critical role to play that is flawed and out of control.

In addition, the IFPEA view is clear, that the initial approach of the current Executive of the SFPA was wrong, when it framed its regulatory approach on the basis of a “healthy friction” between the SFPA and the Fishing industry. This was inappropriate as it set the relationship on friction as opposed to professionalism, obviously expressing such views by management trickled down to the frontline staff and officers within the organisation.

We cannot have a policy of ongoing harassment and undermining of the Irish Fish Processing sector by the SFPA, recent Court cases have demonstrated to the entire nation what exactly the SFPA are capable of when their powers are unchecked and they are subject to zero oversight.

This very Committee has a massive role to play, as we have witnessed first-hand for those 16 years when no Oireachtas Committee existed, and you relied on the Agriculture Committee bringing in the SFPA perhaps once every 5 to 6 months only.

The SFPA in the view of the fishing industry is a failed entity and despite multiple reports into its functioning as a regulator or its capabilities as per the PwC Report, the SFPA have never been properly reformed, neither have they been restructured or provided with the proper leadership since its establishment.

The 2006 Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act, is of its time and is a failed piece of legislation similar to legislation drafted in the same period - such as the financial regulator, or building regulator, all these other Acts are already repealed and the Sea fisheries Act is the last piece requiring major overhaul. The regulator cannot be permitted to self-regulate itself, and herein is the Kernal of the failure.

Nor can the regulator base its function on a hostility or harassment of the sector, the application of regulations, rules or laws must be fair, equal in application or approach and most importantly must always be proportionate. This has not been the situation as we have experienced for the past 10 or 15 years – it is quite the opposite.

The Ministerial Reform of the SFPA needs to be deep, real and meaningful and in order to achieve that result this Committee has a key and critical role to play. Every aspect of the workings of the SFPA from the very Act that established it, to the manner in which it has been and will be managed, and in how it interacts with the sector and public.

We cannot repeat the failures of the Wolfe Report, or Price Coopers Waterhouse Report, those reports effectively achieved nothing and permitted a bad situation to greatly worsen. This is not a case of additional resources or finances for an authority ; but it is a case of an authority of state that thus far has overexerted its authority, went beyond the normal proportionate application of regulations and rules on a sector - which ultimately has led to the devastation of a sector of our economy.

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In our March edition -

EU trades away yet another €25 million to Norway in Irish waters to give Ireland €2 million in return: Just when Irish fishermen thought that they couldn’t be betrayed any more, yet another shock and underhand decision is taken by the EU Commission; On the Brink: Irish Fishing Cannot Survive Another Year of Managed Decline; Inshore Fishermen Will Not Support the Removal of Another Traditional Fishery: Practical Management Measures Must Be Attempted and Implemented Rather Than Closure of the Crayfish Fishery ....

.... all of this plus so much more in our March issue

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