Fishermen ‘dismayed’ over ‘ill-timed’ roll out of penalty point laws

The fishing industry said the new rules were contrary to Irish law and could not have come at a worse time.

Fishermen are reeling over an “ill-timed” penalty points scheme, signed into law last week, despite previous commitments to engage with the sector before rolling out the new EU fishing rules.

The new laws, which will provide the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) with powers to apply penalty points against licenced fishing vessels for serious infringements of the European Common Fisheries Policy, were signed into law by the Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week.