Mr. Patrick Murphy:

I thank the committee for asking us here to discuss these important issues. I would like to introduce Mr. John D. O'Suliivan, our chairman from Castletownbere, and Mr. Greg Casey, an adviser. Mr. John Nolan and Mr. Ronan Sheehy are also in the Gallery. Ronan Sheehy is a young fisherman with a deep and vested interest in what goes on in the fishing industry because he sees his future in it. The Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisations of the four producers organisations in the Republic represents the greatest number of fishing vessels in Ireland’s fishing fleet including a diverse selection of members who fish in every segment of our fishing industry. They operate every type of fishing method, inshore and offshore, are currently concentrate primarily on Irish and UK waters.

I come from a fishing background. My family has a proud tradition of earning our living from our coastal waters. I am told that I come from ten generations of islanders, so we have a long tradition of trying to secure our livelihood from the sea. I started off in a very small boat, worked in different sectors of the industry to gain knowledge and ended up diversifying into aquaculture. I was then offered this position in the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation. I see that we have great difficulties in our industry. I am coming to this with fresh eyes, perhaps, because what is being portrayed here today is that it is a case of one taking fish from the other and that it is one section of the country against the other section of the country. That was never the intention of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation.

We were presented with a problem in 2016. Sections of our white fish fleet, under the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, STECF, were in a situation of imbalance. This meant that there was not enough fish to go around. When we were presented with the opportunity of looking at other ways of diversifying, we decided to present that to the Minister and that it would be investigated to see if there was merit in it. We have since put forward those papers to the Minister to show that there is room to investigate this.

To fast forward, the Department forwarded us information on the different fish that have been caught by the 27 vessels in 2016. They include cod, haddock, hake, ling, megrim, monkfish, nephrops, plaice, pollock, skates and rays, sole, whiting and saithe. The value of the fish that has been landed by these 27 vessels adds up to €9 million, which is a substantial amount. In fact, it is 7% of the white fish quota that Ireland is allowed to catch. That could be returned to the other vessels if, and only if, as my colleague Mr. Hugo Boyle pointed out, enough mackerel was presented and an opportunity was given to the other boats to diversify from the white fish sector into the pelagic sector, which they currently operate as well.

I do not want to make out that this is a case of us versus them, so I would like to revert back to the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill and speak about that first. With regard to this new legislation, the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation feels that what is meant by certain sections in the Bill is not clear. We would like to table some questions to the committee to seek further clarification from the Minister and his Department. We are cognisant that the Minister, Deputy Michael Creed, has said he is only legalising a previous agreement to honour our countries commitment under the voisinage agreement.As an organisation, we feel that it is important to retain and build on the important relationships with our fellow fishermen across the Border and that the Minister's intentions in terms of this legislation are important. To this end, we seek clarification from our Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on aspects of the legislation that concern us.

On vessels owned and operated in Northern Ireland, we want to know if anyone can register a fishing company in Northern Ireland, buy a boat there and fish in the Republic because they know how a company up there and the boat is owned and operated within the Six Counties. There is no mention of the code of practice that our vessels must comply with. What Government body, North or South, will regulate ownership, operation and safety concerns? Regarding the fish that these vessels will catch, who or what will decide to place limits, if any, on the amount or the species and how this will be recorded by these vessels? We operate a monthly quota management advisory committee based on the quota given to us for our vessels fishing in areas where they have specific rights detailed on their licences and authorisation. This is done to ensure we remain within the amounts decided at the December Council in Brussels to ensure the stability and sustainability of the stocks. Will the fish these vessels catch and land be included in the figures for the Republic of Ireland and deducted from Ireland’s quotas, granted to us each December following the EU Council Meetings? If the answer to this is "Yes", will reciprocal access also include reciprocal amounts of fish? For example, if ten tonne of hake is caught by one of these Northern Ireland vessels, will we be allowed to catch that once Brexit is formalised? Will we be able to access that in their waters regardless of whether it is in just the Six Counties or UK waters? These are some of the questions that concern us and our members and we advocate that they are examined closer.

I would like to address some of the issues and the elephants that were mentioned as being in the room. It is important to note that the committee would understand that in Ireland we do not operate individual TACs and quotas. This means that the fish that the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, fought so hard for in Brussels on behalf of Ireland is simply explained: All fish quotas allocated to Ireland belong to the Irish State and not individuals, companies or groupings. These quotas are then allocated by the Minister of the day. The only guidance from a legal point of view is that he or she allocates the quota "for the greater good". On that basis, we have looked at previous landings of our vessels that have both white fish entitlements and pelagic entitlements. These boats have a clear track record. When they get an increase in the pelagic entitlements or the fish that they are allowed to catch, they automatically reduce their effort in the demersal and the white fish fleet. It is proven and it has been shown. We have demonstrated here with this paper from the Department all the different amounts of fish.

It has been discussed here that every month we allocate quotas. All the industry sits down in a room together, including the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority and the Department with responsibility for the Marine, and look back over three years of data and the fishing records of that particular month. We use our own knowledge within the producer organisations of our own vessels' activity to try to share out the crumbs - the fish that Ireland is given. We have 3% of the European quota to share out while 30% of the landings of Europe come from Irish waters. Instead of us doing battle or trying to pick holes with each other, I severely advocate that we come together and look at the bigger problem, which is that there is an imbalance in the fleet and we do not have enough quota to address it.

With the landing obligation, that will be a serious concern. Already in certain areas that we fish in, we can no longer catch species such as haddock and cod. We got a notification from the Department that these areas are closed. Under the landing obligation with haddock, we really do not have any access into that ground. We have a by-catch of 400 kg for the boat for the month to go into that area and catch other species. The committee will see from the figures that there was 53.7 tonne of haddock, which would be returned, caught in an area. That would keep that place open for perhaps two or three more months. It would address the issue. There was cod in area V of 3.7 tonnes. Imagine there is only 16 tonnes of a quota there for the whole country for the year, so 3.7 tonnes of it is quite a significant amount to be caught by 27 vessels that would be giving it back. In monkfish, which is a very important fishery for us, there was 445 tonnes of fish caught by these vessels. We land 3,700 tonnes of fish. Therefore, more than 10% of that stock would be returned to the white fish sector. As I said, these facts and figures come from the Department. We have the values on the side. In the tier 1 values, they have caught €3,659,990 worth of fish. The tier 2 boats that have dual entitlement have caught €5,530,030.

That adds up to almost €9,190,000. It is a substantial amount of fish to return to a sector that has suffered an imbalance.

We were told these boats had to be decommissioned in order to bring our fleet back into line, and all this after two previous decommissioning schemes. I am very passionate about this matter because I have seen how decommissioning wiped out my own community. As other people seated around the room can confirm, fishing boats ranging in size between 12 m and 23 m can no longer be found in Baltimore and Schull ports because they have been put out of business. As many as 73 boats were decommissioned so €48.4 million was paid to the fishermen to leave the industry, which had the knock-on effect of 700 jobs being lost. Now we have been told that 30 more vessels ranging between 12 m and 23 m must be decommissioned. These small boats work in the small harbours dotted around the coastline. It is not simply an issue that affects the North or the South. The decommissioning of such boats will have a detrimental affect that will be felt for many generations. The measure makes no sense because it will wipe out more ports and villages around our coastline.

We, as an organisation, have spent a lot of time putting forward this presentation. We did so because we were told that the refrigerated sea water, RSW, fleet would not lose any fish. They managed not to lose jobs the previous year on the same quota. We have only asked for the uplift to be dished out. The same fish that the RSW had the previous year they were going to retain for the following year. Not only that, they secured an increase in blue whiting, which meant 600 tonnes per vessel. Whereas the RSW boats, as Mr. O'Donnell pointed out, shared it among them. Six boats participated in that fishery the previous year at 400 tonnes per boat and this year it is ten boats at 388 tonnes per boat. Anyone can see it is unfair when one examines the facts. I urge the committee to look at the merits. It is not about taking fish off one guy to give it to another. We want a certain amount of fish given back to 1,436 vessels that are located all around the coastline. If the Minister sees the value in that then this industry has a chance and, therefore, we might stop vessels and boats being decommissioned.

There are no individual transferable quotas, ITQs, in Ireland. The former Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, made sure that the fish that swim in our waters, the quotas and the fish that we get from Brussels belong to everybody. It is up to the current Minister to decide how fair and how best that fish can be allocated around the coastline, not just for individuals but communities. I refer to people whose lives depend on the industry and have children growing up in the areas. Jobs have already been lost. Previous decommissioning schemes have had a huge detrimental affect on communities. If people want to look into the matter then that is where they should start.