Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To answer that point, let us say that one had ten tonnes of cod to catch in the current system, but the ISIS advice is on the basis of a discard rate of 30% for that species. It is quite a complex calculation, but the recommendation on a new quota will have to be based on what a fisherman can avoid, or not avoid, catching. If half the extra 3,000 tonnes of discarded fish is juvenile fish, it should not be factored into an increasing quota. However, if the other half is adult fish that one cannot avoid catching, it will be factored in. We are trying to maintain the mortality rate of stocks, but instead of throwing them into the sea, fishermen will be able to land them. The calculation is not the amount currently fished plus the current discard equals the new quota. Catching some of the discarded fish can be avoided. It depends on the fishery, but what is currently being discarded and cannot be avoided must be factored into the new quota. It is quite a complex calculation, depending on the stocks, because with some of the fisheries one can avoid catching fish, while with others one cannot. In some of the mixed fisheries it is also quite complex.

ISIS will have a much more complex job to do in recommending quotas. It will have to do two things. First, the quota must be consistent with maximum sustainable yield. Second, it must be consistent with a catch quota rather than a landing quota, taking into account what would otherwise have been discarded and what can be avoided through the use of technical measures. It is quite a complex system, but fishermen will know what we are saying because they throw cod over the side in buckets. They will know what is required for this calculation, even though it is undoubtedly a complex one.

The one certain thing is that fish that are currently being sustainably fished will not be subject to a reduction in quota on the basis of moving from landing to catch quota; rather, there will be an increase. If there is to be a reduction in quota because they are being unsustainably fished at the moment, it will be less of a reduction than it otherwise would have been because it is going to a catch quota rather than a landing quota.