Dr. Cecil Beamish:

The plan must be adopted first to grant power to the member states, in regional groups, to set the technical measures. At present we can set technical measures for what are known as discard plans, and that work continues. The discard plans will not last forever and the multi-annual plan creates a legal possibility to continue doing this, post-2020 or post-2021, when we will need to do so. That scenario is viewed as a positive by the industry because it allows the measures that govern the fishery to be tailored to the region in question. In addition, the member states, working with their industries, can come up with new measures, etc., to move forward.

Deputy McConalogue mentioned the landing obligation and discards plan. One of the other big initiatives in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy was that by the start of next year all species covered by total allowable catch, TAC, and quota would be subject to a discard ban. In other words, one can bring home what one catches but with some minor flexibility at the margins.

To do this, member states have been working together, under regional powers that were given in the reformed Common Fisheries Policy, to develop some tailored ways and flexibilities for governing this area and allow fishermen some marginal manoeuvre, if one likes, in achieving this objective. The member states work closely with what are known as the industry advisory councils. The industry from the same member states and at the same regional level will come together and decide the industry position and the member states will only proceed with work on the basis of having the industry position on board. While this is helping to tailor the discard ban, it will not solve all the problems. The way it is working is that the member states will agree by unanimity on a discard ban which will implement some of the flexibilities required to introduce the ban at the end of the year. There will still be problems, however, and much work has been done between the member states and the advisory council of industry on where those problems are likely to emerge. The plan is that once the member states agree what they can agree on flexibilities under the regulation, close work will be done with the Commission from that point until the December Council to identify what additional steps will be taken to enable the obligation to be introduced at the end of the year.

There are undoubtedly concerns as this is a major change in behaviour. While people are concerned about its potential impact, we should not lose sight of the benefit. If we can avoid discarding 40%, 50% or 60% of the catches of some of the stocks on which we are dependent and ideally reach a point where these are left in the sea to grow, we will create a much more sustainable basis for higher yields in future. We are trying to move towards smarter, more environmentally friendly fishing that will sustain the industry.