Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for his indulgence in allowing me to speak even though I am not a member of the committee. I welcome the witnesses and the presentation. Many of the recommendations in the presentation are not 1 million miles from what we hear as the intentions of our Department in respect of listening to scientific advice and meeting the total allowable catch, TAC, negotiations annually. That goes for increasing TAC for some species, where scientific advice recommends that, and decreasing it for other species, where the advice recommends that.

The difficulty we have is that Irish fishermen are deeply frustrated. When we see scientific advice coming from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, filtering through the Commission and European Council decisions, decreases come rapidly and hit the industry hard whereas scientific advice showing decreased fishing effort or conservation measures do not result in the same urgency in increasing TAC. This involves ICES, the European Commission and European Council.

Through the industry, I am aware that there is clear evidence that Celtic Sea cod, herring and other species have recovered somewhat but we do not get the same increase in total allowable catch. This refers also to an inordinate lag in time between the studies of the scientific community on fisheries and species, through ICES and the different organisations that feed into it and through to the decision-makers. It can take up to four years. For fishery stocks of some species, four years is much more than generational. Pelagic species, specifically, can recover quite quickly. This is not just because of conservation or other fisheries measures but also water temperature, climatic conditions or a host of inputs. The only one left at the end of the rope is the fisherman.

Despite evidence of what is happening on the ground, it is frustrating to see people being told that the story is quite different. However, the story could be quite old. It is a major problem. There is a major problem of trust between the stakeholders, the fishermen on the ground, the decision-makers and the scientific community. Until that is broached, consensus on maximum sustainable yield, MSY, and FMSY will be almost impossible. Until we get up-to-date scientific advice, trying to convince stakeholders on the undisputed merits of MSY and FMSY measures is a difficult proposition.

Is Ms Gomez familiar with the Irish fishing industry and the profile of the Irish fishing fleet? Almost three quarters of the fleet are smaller than 12 m. We only have 2.5% of the EU vessels and 3.7% of the gross registered tonnes and 3% of the European Union kilowatts. Some 60% of them were non-trawlers and many of them fish for non-quota species, where TACs are not set. The Irish fishing industry is very sustainable in terms of that fishery. It provides small catches for a large number of families in coastal communities and consistently gets bad press in some quarters because of indiscretions in other parts of the EU fishing fleet.

Does Ms Gomes have an opinion on the geopolitical effects? I refer specifically to the Faroe Islands and Icelandic issue as it affects the mackerel fishery and how it can influence decisions taken by the European Commission and other stakeholders on international treaties. It also affects coastal communities.

The vast majority of those involved in the Irish fishing industry, apart from those with the very smallest vessels, including the vessels under 12 m vessels that I mentioned, are engaged in the highly regulated pelagic sector which I submit is over-regulated. For example, there has been a huge dispute, in which there is now tentative agreement, about water being weighed as part of the TAC. This underscores the distrust between the industry and those charged with its regulation. I suggest the when talking about sea fisheries conservation in a global or European context, the quotas of other fleets such as the Spanish demersal fleet, the Dutch pelagic fleet, the French demersal fleet should be the focus of far more scientific scrutiny than that of the Irish fleet.