Anti-pollution controls have been extended to the State's sea fishery officers under a new inspectorate established by Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey.
The Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) will also take over monitoring of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
The authority has been welcomed by fishing industry representatives as a step towards "depoliticisation" of fisheries management. "We already have an independent licensing authority, and this new body should contribute towards a more equitable system of managing the resource," said Jason Whooley, chief executive of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation.
The SFPA, known in Irish as Údarás an Chosaint Iascaigh Mhara, will be answerable to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. It will be overseen by three "independent" commissioners, and stakeholders will be represented by a 14-person statutory consultative committee. There will also be a system for handling complaints.
Some 20 administrative staff with the SFPA will be based at the department's temporary decentralised offices in Clonakilty, Co Cork. The majority of staff will be based in ports and harbours, and recruitment is under way to double inspection numbers.
Some 20 new sea fishery officers are being trained, and the aim is to have 80 altogether, according to a department spokesman.
The remit includes doubling up as marine environmental officers, and divisional officers will also be authorised under the Water Pollution Acts.
The Naval Service and Air Corps will continue to monitor activity at sea, acting as agents for the SFPA. But Fine Gael defence spokesman Billy Timmins has called on the Government to specify extra resources for them at a time when the State is seeking to extend Ireland's continental shelf.
The SFPA's temporary headquarters will be replaced by a permanent national marine office in Clonakilty in 2008, incorporating Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), under the Government's decentralisation plan. However, BIM staff have not opted to move to west Cork.
