Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the report. I am sure he is well aware of the protest that took place at the gates of Leinster House yesterday in advance of this committee meeting. There is a lot of concern and anger out there in respect of overfishing, not just in Ireland but throughout Europe and further afield.

The Minister's Department funds the Marine Institute to provide the scientific background to the Government's sustainable impact assessment of the Commission's proposal. The Marine Institute report of 2019 stated that only 18% of stocks were overfished in 2019. However, this assessment omits the 35% of stocks that are not subject to maximum sustainable yield evaluation.

First, will the Minister explain why the Marine Institute continues to provide a sustainability assessment that omits many of Ireland's most overfished stocks? Second, the Minister's Department also funds Bord Iascaigh Mhara to provide to our Government the economic background to the Commission's proposals. Again, I am concerned as to why Bord Iascaigh Mhara continues to provide an economic sustainability assessment that omits the economic impact of stock collapse and fisheries closures and fails to consider the medium to long-term economic benefit of sustainable fisheries management.

Third, I suppose the Minister would agree that the socio-economic prosperity of fishing communities will be dependent on sustainable fisheries management. By driving overfishing, however, we contribute in a way to the overfishing of many stocks. This threatens numerous fisheries with closure as soon as, perhaps, next year. Will the Minister continue to advocate the overfishing of by-catch stocks to facilitate the exploitation of target stocks, or will he listen to the advice out there and advocate the full implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy, fulfilling the commitments made by successive Fine Gael Governments since 2013?