Parasites

How the Irish fishing and processing industry has spawned a lucrative business for SFPA monitoring & control.

But how far can things go before this parasitic quango eventually kills its host?

Editorial Comment -  IFSA

“In the 19 years since the SFPA was established, the Irish fishing industry has declined in vessels, numbers of fishermen, volume of quota and fish processing & export capacity, by more than 60% - - and in that same period the SFPA has grown by 400%, and continue to hire more staff to this very day” - Cormac Burke, Irish Fishing & Seafood Alliance

Ireland’s Sea Fisheries Protection ‘Authority’ (SFPA) was established, to operate under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), in 2007 under the provisions of the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006.

Many people regularly question the SFPA decision to arrogantly describe themselves as an ‘authority’ when not one single SFPA employee, in fishing industry terms, is qualified to be an authority on the subject but, as will become clear throughout this article, it seems that arrogance and the SFPA go hand-in-hand in their general dealings with this industry and the people in it.

Core to the founding of this body were marine minister of the day, Noel Dempsey (FF), and the ex DAFM assistant secretary Cecil Beamish - - neither men with a reputation for their fondness of the fishing industry.

The appointment of this body was presented as a standard monitoring organisation as is required in any country with a fishing industry but, over time and their inclusion in various amendments to Ireland’s Criminal Justice Act, what transpired was evolution from a simple policing body to one with a ‘jackboot’ mentality that sees itself as not only above the law but believes itself unaccountable to ministers or Government for its actions.

The past twenty-odd years carries a litany of fishing industry outrages at SFPA behaviour in many different cases of inshore, demersal and pelagic vessels and such stories have constantly appeared in the industry media (by those not too afraid to report such issues) but it appears that the SFPA management gets some form of perverse pleasure in bad press and, not just by coincidence, it has happened on many occasions that if someone in this industry speaks out too loud or too often then his vessel or fish company becomes the target of a sudden increased number of inspections, ultimately resulting in a penalty or fine of some sort.

It is this arrogance in reacting to bad press by coming down even harder on the fishing industry that has resulted in SFPA officials being called to appear in front of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture & Fisheries on several occasions - - the first of these I watched online as then SFPA chief Susan Steele (now head of the SFPA’s umbrella organisation in Europe, EFCA) blatantly misled the committee’s questions with statements such as the SFPA “enjoys a good and respectful working relationship with the fishing industry” (when in fact nothing could be further from the truth); and later at another such Oireachtas Joint Committee hearing, at which I myself attended as an invited guest, where three SFPA officials sat stoney-faced, took questions from the TDs and senators on the Joint Committee and then simply refused to answer many of the questions as they responded that these topics were considered “operational matters”.

At that particular hearing, I recall that, on being asked about how did the he feel about the dreadful relationship that existed between the industry and the SFPA, Executive Chairman Paschal Hayes glibly and with a smirk replied “sure a bit of friction is no harm between the organisation and the fishermen…” - - which in itself is a shocking response considering some fishermen have confessed to be driven to a state of depression, even suicidal, at times through SFPA harassment over the years and that this is an organisation that is supposed to be working for and with the fishing industry and not feel the need to kick it at every opportunity, which Hayes seemed to find amusing.

Indeed, it is interesting to note that yesterday morning (April 9th 2025), news has broken that the Oireachtas is to create a full dedicated Committee of both houses Dáil Eireann and Seanad Eireann on all matters relating Fisheries and Maritime Affairs - - - it seems highly likely that the recent blue whiting SFPA fiasco of last weekend has been the catalyst for the Government’s decision for the establishment of these committees.

This latest row arose due to SFPA insistence on a ‘monitoring’ (machine weighing) of 750 tonnes of blue whiting which would mean these soft fish would no longer be suitable for processing for human consumption and had instead to go to the fishmeal factory for processing for animal feed -  - the fishing industry already had an understanding with the SFPA since this problem arose last year that all monitoring of this particular species (blue whiting) could be done at the factories which have EU-certified CCTV and weighing systems for that very purpose.

And, despite widespread media coverage of this story already this week on RTÉ, Highland Radio, Ocean FM and indeed within the walls of Dáil Éireann, the SFPA’s typical arrogant response was nothing more than to say that the decision to send the fish to fishmeal “was the skipper’s own choice” - - which in reality is not much choice when they had removed the alternative.

(Indeed, speaking of SFPA response, it would seem that being unaccountable is part of their day-to-day operation as many people report that responses to emails, or even letters to fishermen containing warnings or charges are rarely, if ever, signed by any particular person or name, just SFPA - - which also makes one wonders if a charge is legally binding if it is not signed by the ‘arresting officer’ or the inspecting officer bringing the charges against the defendant?)

But in the blue whiting event at least the Irish pelagic industry is lucky to have the fishmeal processing as an alternative option and that this factory is able to provide the next best form of processing (for animal foodstuff) - - but one wonders if it has occurred to the SFPA what might happen if at some point this meal factory is unable to take these catches that, because of SFPA bloody mindedness and intentional disruption, could not go for human consumption processing?

To be clear on this matter, several radio and TV stations have described the event over the blue whiting landing and the factory having to send its workers home as some sort of ‘administrative error’ or a ‘mistake’ on the part of the SFPA - - this was no error, and not even the SFPA themselves are trying to claim that it was.

By insisting on a ‘monitor’ for a landing of blue whiting, the SFPA knew exactly what that meant and what it would result in - - and it was nothing more than a flexing of muscles by a bully to remind the Irish fishing industry of its power and its perceived ‘untouchable’ status.

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One industry in decline while the other grows

It is a fact that, between some semi State bodies, the SFPA and DAFM civil servants, the Irish fishing industry is providing more than 700 well-paid and pensionable jobs - - but ironically providing them to the very people many of whom for decades are hell bent on shutting down this industry.

In the almost 20 years since the SFPA was established the Irish fishing industry has declined in vessels, numbers of fishermen, volume of quota allowed as well as fish processing and export capacity by more than 60% - - and in that same period the SFPA has grown by some 400%, and continue to hire more staff to add to their 250-odd numbers.

Indeed, not content with sucking up vast amounts of Irish taxpayers’ money every year, SFPA has reportedly recently begun cornering the market in gaining a chunk of EU (EMFAF) funding which is intended for those under the fishing industry’s Common Fisheries Policy and for ‘oceans governance’.

Never far from adverse headlines, last year the SFPA were constantly in the news for harassment of visiting vessels from other nations, many who swore never to return to land fish in Ireland due to the SFPA’s over-zealous approach to imposing basic EU regulations.

And prior to that, the SFPA created a nightmare scenario when they refused to carry out monitoring at fish factories (which had always previously been the accepted case), which then resulted in the EU Commission removing Ireland’s derogation, meaning that the rule of ‘weighing at point of landing’ (ie quayside) had to be re-introduced and thereby creating much extra complication for the fishing industry but also it meant the requirement for even more fishery officers to be hired…

… and on that note, isn’t it strange that every strategic step the SFPA takes always results in the justification for hiring even more staff - - to the point that compared to the numbers of active fishing vessels, Ireland appears to have a huge imbalance with regards to numbers of fishery inspectors compared to other EU Member States.

Coinciding with all the confusion regarding the pelagic landing rule, an EU Commission report on fisheries in Ireland was taking place and, again with great coincidence, articles began to appear in national newspapers with journalists fed carefully chosen titbits, kept telling the general public about the possible ‘huge’ penalties that Ireland was facing as a result of details in this report and of course, for the need for even more fishery officers to be hired to keep these ‘criminal’ Irish fishermen in check…

… and when the famous report that had carried so many threats eventually came to to light, it DID NOT criticise the Irish fishing industry but instead highlighted the incompetence of the SFPA in its handling of many scenarios …. But, under some pressure to hide these embarrassing details, the Irish Government buried the report and it never again saw the light of day (but many people in the Irish fishing industry have seen the first draft of the report and its damning contents) - - and again, isn’t it strange that all the Irish newspaper articles telling the public about the big penalties that Irish fishermen would be facing all seemed to cease and have never been heard of since - - nor has anyone called to task the journalists over their scaremongering articles and as to who were their sources.

Accountability

So here we are - - an industry worth hundreds of millions of euros every year slowly being strangled to death by a monitoring organisation with 250-odd fishery officers who carry out the instructions of less than a half a dozen ‘suits’ in a back room - - people who arrogantly believe they have more power than the Garda or than any Irish politician whether they are in Government or not.

In the formation constitution of the SFPA it is stated that they must “Engage in any other activities relating to the functions of the Authority as may be approved of by the Minister” when the reality is that, thus far at least, this industry has never seen a marine minister with the backbone to openly stand up to or challenge the SFPA and, as so often heard from the previous minister McConalogue, “I have no authority over the SFPA and my DAFM officials have no working relationship nor meetings with the SFPA…” - a statement he used regularly until the IFSA published a story revealing that the DAFM and SFPA had been meeting twice per week for almost a year in what were called ‘budgetary matters’ - - strangely enough he stopped repeating his ‘we have no contact’ statement after that.

Meanwhile we’re being told (through rumours filtering down) that the EU Commission is telling Ireland that it has the most successful fisheries monitoring regime in Europe - - but instead of making that news public, Irish fishermen are being told, reportedly, that Europe is not happy and that it wants to see more Irish fisheries convictions ….

So, one of these stories is true and the other is an SFPA fabrication - - doesn’t take a genius to work out which is which.

There are many TDs, sitting in Government and in Opposition, who recognise that the quango that is the SFPA is nothing more than the bastard child of the union of a frustrated civil servant and a bitter politician and that it has grown to be out-of-control, dysfunctional and, if not urgently dismantled and reformed, will eventually result in the end of the Irish fishing industry and the loss of thousands of jobs at sea and ashore.

I’m sure poor Ministers Heydon and Dooley will be wondering what the hell they’ve got into in taking on the Marine brief but equally they will be shocked when they begin to understand the need for the dissolution of the SFPA and the formation of a new body that will be ordered to work WITH this industry and not against it.

But let’s open up this can of worms. The Irish fishing industry of course wants to be compliant with all EU regulations but it can no longer tolerate the SFPA’s own unique version of these regulations.

There are less than a half dozen people on the board of the SFPA -- our politicians must now demand a full enquiry into this organisation, its ‘modus operandi’ and how this group, despite being clearly dysfunctional and incompetent, continue to be allowed increase its power - - meanwhile the reality is that the SFPA represents the cancerous tumour in the fishing industry and it is only a matter of time before one kills off the other.

The need for complete clear-out and reformation of this dysfunctional organisation is urgently needed  - -  it is time for action

Minister Heydon ; Minister Dooley ; Michael Collins TD ; Padraig MacLoughlainn TD ; Pat the Cope Gallagher TD ; Senator Manus Boyle

Afterthought

Its not too far-fetched a theory in the minds of many Irish fishermen who wonder what other nations stand to benefit from the continued reduction and eventual collapse of the Irish fishing sector in the context of the EU community and, in such a scenario, the need for a root & branch investigation comes into even sharper focus - - if, as many believe, the vast organisation of the EU Fisheries Commission itself can be infiltrated by certain fishery powers then doing something similar to an small organisation in Ireland would be a simple matter - Cormac Burke.