Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Annual Report 2013: Bord Iascaigh Mhara

2:00 pm

Photo of Michael McNamaraMichael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am largely in agreement with previous speakers, perhaps because of our common experience in developing the report on coastal communities and following our trip to Scotland, where we saw a fishing sector which had achieved the scale Bord Iascaigh Mhara would like to achieve but which also manages to sustain communities in a way that does not seem to be a priority for BIM.

I am not from a fishing background; I come from east Clare on the River Shannon and an agricultural background. However, about a year and a half ago I held a meeting in west Clare, where people come from a fishing background. They were overwhelmingly negative about BIM and the lack of support from it for communities. Although I appreciate that there is a general tendency at meetings for people to express negative views, I did not hear very much that was positive about BIM.

I do not disagree that we need to grow the sector from its current turnover level of €850 million to in excess of €1 billion. However, in the next sentence of his opening statement Mr. Keatinge says that to do this, we need large-scale operators. It seems that the broad policy of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is all about large-scale operators. Smaller operators are seen as an inconvenience that must be tolerated because of the Common Agricultural Policy and even that policy is interpreted to the greatest extent possible to suit large-scale rather than small operators. BIM seems to mirror this; as it is within the remit of the Department, that is possibly not an accident. Is BIM doing anything to bring small producers together to train and help them to develop existing enterprises? These producers are grounded in their communities and less likely to be mobile, take off and use flags of convenience.

The other issue Deputy Thomas Pringle raised concerned the fisheries local area group, FLAG, programme. I recently travelled with the Chairman to attend meetings at the European Commission. The Commission was very much in agreement with Deputy Thomas Pringle - I do not know if he will be pleased or disappointed to hear this - on Ireland's failure to use the Common Fisheries Policy to develop and support coastal communities. As a matter of fact, I have rarely heard Commission officials being as critical of any sector in Ireland as they were about the failure of the FLAG programme. They were very open in saying Ireland was pretty much at the bottom of the pile. What does BIM intend to do about this, if anything?

The delegates mentioned sustainability as a key objective and that consumers wanted to know that the produce they were eating was sustainable and from where it had come. One of the mechanisms European consumers increasingly utilise is protected geographical indications. There are very few such indications in Ireland in the food sector, but the few that we have are in the fishing sector. Is BIM doing anything or does it plan to do anything in this regard? There is scope to do a lot.

The downside of the fact that Ireland has not developed its fisheries sector in the way other European states have is that we have a lot of very small producers and small boats, the great majority of which are under 10 m. The upside is that they all engage in sustainable fishing; they are not able to wipe out an entire species. About 24 hours would be the maximum length of time they could be at sea before coming back into port. Is there anything concrete being done to develop geographical areas of origin to help them to market their produce? The product is sustainable, high end and meets all of the catchwords and so on. It needs to reach markets in Ireland on the east coast where the population is concentrated but also in the south east of England, Ìle-de-France, Germany and other placee. What is BIM doing in that regard?

I concur with Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív on the scepticism in Scotland about the size of the proposed organic salmon farm in Galway Bay. It seems to be unparalleled in Scotland where, being much more northerly, ocean temperatures are cooler. In his opening statement Mr. Keatinge said, "It is our intention to lease the site to a reputable operator with the necessary capital and expertise to ensure the farm will be run by the strictest of regulatory practices." Who is the reputable operator? It is quite clear from the wording used that the intention is to lease the site to a particular operator and I have heard there have been discussions. Has BIM been party to discussions with this reputable operator? Given that the intention is to lease the site to an operator, how on earth can we claim that the farm will generate a wages flow of around €14.5 million, particularly if all the processing will be done outside Ireland? Is there any linkage with processing in Ireland and, if so, where exactly on the island of Ireland or in the Republic of Ireland will it be undertaken? The money generated, at least on finfish farms, is mostly in processing. Most of the profit and added value is generated there. This might not be a matter for BIM but for the Department. Is there any linkage between licensing and processing? Is there any conditionality that the licensing be subject to processing near the site of the farm in order that the communities that look out at the salmon cages and forgo opportunities to develop their areas for other purposes will at least have the benefit of the processing taking place and wages being paid in them?

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