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

The annual fishing opportunities for fishing fleets are traditionally agreed at the December Fisheries Council. This year, the arrangements for 2015 are due to be negotiated at the Council scheduled for 15 and 16 December. The levels of total allowable catch, TAC, and the quotas for Ireland will again be determined at that meeting following negotiations with member states and the Commission. The Fisheries Council will also decide on the fishing effort, which determines days spent at sea, available for the Irish fleet in the Irish Sea and off the north-west coast for 2015.
The process of preparing for the Council is well under way, with the publication of detailed proposals for TACs and quotas of key stocks of interest to Ireland in late October and November. I refer here to the Commission's proposals as opposed to those of individual governments. The proposals cover stocks which are not subject to third-party international agreements and are, in the main, whitefish and prawn stocks. Stocks which are subject to ongoing international negotiations, such as blue whiting and whiting in the Celtic Sea, are not included in the proposals.
Ireland, on behalf of the European Union, is hosting important fisheries negotiations between Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Ireland at the National Seafood Centre in Clonakilty, County Cork. These negotiations, on the annual fishing arrangements for 2015 between the EU and Norway, commenced yesterday and are expected to continue all this week.
Mackerel quotas were agreed at coastal state level last week, with Ireland given a quota of 89,000 tonnes for 2015. The latter is a very good result for us in our most important fishery. In fact, it is the second highest quota we have ever received for mackerel, as far as I can recall. The highest was last year, but there were specific reasons that it was so high on that occasion.
The Commission's proposals are based on formal advice received from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, the independent international body with responsibility for advising on the state of fish stocks. The Commission also takes account of the views of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, STECF, on the economic, technical and social impacts of the scientific advice.
In order to inform my negotiations at the December Fisheries Council, I have had an assessment undertaken of the impacts of the Commission's proposals. This is line with the commitment contained in the programme for Government regarding the preparation of a sea-fisheries sustainability impact assessment. To facilitate and inform these deliberations, an open consultation process was initiated, whereby stakeholders were asked to submit their comments and observations on the Commission's proposals for fishing opportunities for 2015. From 5 November, an online web portal on was activated to enable the transmission of electronic submissions for consideration. In addition, I convened a meeting of stakeholders on 26 November, which gave a further opportunity to key stakeholders to outline their position directly to me on the many aspects of this proposal. Five submissions were received by the closure date, all of which are available in full on the website.
I agree with the sentiment expressed in most of the contributions, which call for greater adherence to the available scientific advice to enable prudent and appropriate management decisions to be taken, allied with a concern about misapplication of some scientific advice. To be clear, I do not agree with taking an overly narrow interpretation of some of the scientific advice. I will not support cuts where additional information is available to inform the decision and where there is a real risk of generating higher discard levels than at present. The Marine Institute and Bord Iascaigh Mhara have undertaken an evaluation of the Commission's proposals, which is contained in the sea-fisheries sustainability impact assessment.
In regard to the biological assessment, while noting an improvement in the status of some fish stocks, others remain a concern, namely in the areas west of Scotland and in the Irish and Celtic Seas. Much needs to be done for the benefit of our fishing industry to rebuild all stocks to sustainable levels, including, in some cases, further reductions in fishing opportunities and, in other cases, improving selectivity to avoid by-catch. Implementing a reformed Common Fisheries Policy and ending overfishing will require continued work and commitment from all member states, including Ireland, and the fishing industry itself.
The impact assessment summarises the pressure on the 73 stocks dealt with in the 2014 stock book. This is an increase from 59 stocks last year, mainly due to the addition of a number of skates and rays stocks. There is a higher number - 25 stocks - assessed to be sustainably fished in 2014, up from 20 last year. That is very positive. The proportion remains the same due to the higher number of stocks being assessed overall this year. The number of stocks overfished has increased from 14 in 2013 to 22 in 2014, which is not good news. This is due to the inclusion of four new stocks - rays and seabass - and four stocks having gone from unknown status or underfished to overfished. The number of stocks with unknown status is 26, which is similar to last year.
In respect of the biomass of stocks, that is, the quantity of mature fish in the sea, approximately one quarter, or 17 stocks, are in a positive state with above biomass trigger points. The number of depleted stocks has increased from seven to 12.

Now, 16% of stocks are assessed as being depleted. The number of stocks with unknown spawning stock biomass, SSB, no assessments or an undefined maximum rate of fishing mortality, Fmsy, remains relatively high at 44. Many of these stocks have good information on biomass trends, informing scientific advice for the stocks.

As part of the negotiations on the European Maritime Fisheries Fund, EMFF, I secured a budget of €32.5 million for data collection. This will be available to the Marine Institute together with national funding to deliver enhanced data collection work for the period to 2020. I am confident that we will improve information and provide better quality advice for the stocks around our coast with this commitment to the data collection work of the Marine Institute.

It is also noted that the activities of the fleet have other impacts on the wider marine ecosystem. Greater efforts are necessary to achieve a more harmonious and eco-friendly interaction with the broader environment and to ensure compliance with the European environmental directives. These efforts will need to be imposed at European level on all EU fleets fishing in shared fisheries under the CFP. This is a matter that will receive attention in the reformed CFP.

I will not go into a stock-by-stock discussion now, but the specific details are available in the document that has been laid before the Dáil and in the accompanying stock book, which was prepared by the Marine Institute. I will of course address any specific issue raised about individual stocks.

Regarding the CFP, the maximum sustainable yield, MSY, and the discards ban, I am committed as a general principle to the ambitious policy of achieving MSY by 2015 where possible and by 2020 at the latest. This must be implemented in a rational and progressive manner. In line with the CFP, we will need to phase in the delivery of Fmsy if its immediate application seriously jeopardises the social and economic sustainability of the fishing fleet.

Additional changes being introduced under the reformed CFP include an obligation to land all catches. This will apply to pelagic species from 1 January 2015 and will be phased in over three years, commencing with some of the main demersal species in 2016. A further change is the development of a more regionalised approach. Ireland will chair the north west waters group of member states in the first half of 2015 during which time its six member states will work on the difficult task of drawing up a discards plan for demersal stocks in the waters between the north coast of France and the northern tip of Scotland. A third change will see a move towards multi-annual plans covering multiple stocks and where and when they are exploited together. Managing mixed fisheries is a particularly complex ask but we will endeavour to do it.

These changes will result in a major shift away from current management approaches. This provides a challenge to all stakeholders to identify and apply instruments that are consistent with the overall policy objectives while maximising the potential yield available in line with available quotas. In particular, the obligation to land all catches means that total allowable catches, TACs, must be set taking this situation into account. The reformed CFP provides that when the obligation to land applies to a stock, the TAC will be set to reflect catches. This should involve higher TACs, which is good news for fishermen, because discarding will no longer be permitted from 1 January 2016 for certain whitefish stocks as the landing obligation is rolled out.

There is a serious challenge for our industry in preparing for the implementation of the landing obligation or, as it is more commonly referred to, the discards ban. I have established a national discards implementation group under Dr. Noel Cawley to help to prepare the industry for the challenges that lie ahead. The work of this group will intensify next year as we face the considerable challenge of commencing the implementation of the discards ban in our mixed whitefish fisheries.

Crucial to preparing for the landing obligation will be the introduction of improved technical measures to reduce significantly catches of juvenile fish and avoid catches of depleted stocks. It will be essential to include technical measures such as mesh size changes and closed areas in the regional discard plans to be drawn up by the regional member states and implemented in EU law. There was some ambiguity from the Commission this year as to whether this was legally possible. To ensure that it is, I have been working hard to have it specifically set down in an EU regulation. I am hopeful this matter will be resolved satisfactorily in the near future.

The Marine Institute, together with EU partners, has been working with the North Western Waters Regional Advisory Council to begin the development of mixed fisheries plans to aid the decision making process. The European Commission has funded two major projects to deal with these mixed fisheries interactions. Our industry is heavily involved in these projects, which aim to highlight and identify the biological and economic trade-offs between management options. This work is an investment in the future and will help towards better TAC setting.

It is sobering to read what the economic and social impacts of the Commission's proposals would be were they to be implemented in full. On the specific issue of the TAC and quota proposals for the December Council, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, BIM, estimates that the proposal as it stands would see a net reduction in fishing opportunity for the Irish whitefish sector of 20% by volume. In financial terms, this amounts to a direct income reduction of approximately €18.2 million on 2014's levels. Pelagic quotas would also decline, due in large part to decreases in boarfish and herring quotas. The impact would be a reduction of €13.24 million on 2014's levels. Overall, the financial loss to Irish fishing opportunities if the Commission proposal was adopted unchanged would amount to a direct income reduction of €31.46 million on 2014's levels. At a regional level in the Irish Sea, the Celtic Sea and along the west coast, the proposal would result in a 24% reduction in quotas at a value of €18.8 million for the demersal - whitefish and prawn - fleet. This would directly impact on the ports of Clogherhead, Howth, Dunmore East, Kilmore Quay, Dingle, Castletownbere and Ros an Mhíl as well as other smaller ports. However, an 8% increase in quotas for the demersal fleet in the north west would directly benefit the ports of Greencastle and Killybegs.

In addition to the direct losses to the fleet, income would also be lost from the processing sector as a direct result of reduced catches and in a number of ancillary industries, for example, net making, engineering, refrigeration and chandlery. Based on a total turnover generated per tonne of fish landed, BIM estimates that the full costs, direct and indirect, of the proposed quota reductions in the Commission's proposal pre-Council would be in the order of €78 million. On the basis of the most recent employment surveys of the catching sector, BIM also estimates that these reductions could impact on between 500 and 600 full and part-time jobs, either through reduced incomes, partial lay-offs or redundancies.

The proposal does not include the Hague preferences, which are a safety net for the Irish fleet on specific stocks where TACs are in decline. The Hague preferences are negotiated annually at the Council in the face of considerable opposition from a number of member states. The loss of these allocations in 2015 would amount to 1,351 tonnes of fish with a direct value of €2.9 million. BIM estimates that the full value, direct and indirect, of losing the Hague quotas in 2015 will be approximately €8.1 million, with an associated impact on 100 or so full and part-time jobs, either through reduced incomes, partial lay-offs or redundancies.

I concur with the findings of the sea fisheries sustainability impact assessment. I will not support cuts where reliable, scientifically vetted additional information is available to inform the decision or where there is a real risk of generating higher discard levels than at present.

There is a high cost from a social and economic perspective when quota cuts are proposed and we must be satisfied that in every case these cuts are justifiable. Fishing ports and whole communities around our coast are dependent on these fisheries for their very survival.

I would like to publicly thank and acknowledge all those who contributed to the production of this impact assessment and I look forward to the debate on its conclusions. In particular, I want to reaffirm my commitment to obtaining a fair, science-based outcome in December, which is in the best interests of our fishing fleet and fishing communities, but also takes a responsible approach to stock management.