Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and wish members a good evening. I welcome this opportunity to present this sustainability impact assessment, SIA, to the committee. As in previous years, a rigorous assessment has been undertaken to examine the implications for Ireland of the potential fishing opportunities for the coming year. These last few years have been particularly challenging for our fishing industry. In addition to the continuing disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, our industry has had to contend with the impacts of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and the quota transfers as a result of that under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA. I can assure this committee that I, as Minister, and this Government, continue to keep the focus on the disproportionate quota reductions for Ireland under the TCA and to use any opportunity available to seek constructive solutions that would help alleviate this unacceptable position. I am keeping a strong focus on the matter within the Fisheries Council and making clear that the TCA transfers must be addressed within the EU and must be dealt with in the upcoming review of the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP.

Last week, the Taoiseach wrote to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the issue of the inequitable burden on Ireland in terms of quota transfer under the TCA and to her and the Commission reiterate the Government’s call to find practical ways within the EU to address this issue. In addition to the impacts on industry, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU has also led to changes in the EU’s process of setting total allowable catches, TACs, for the majority of our commercial stocks. Approximately 40 of Ireland’s fish stocks, which were previously exclusively EU resources, are now shared resources, with most obviously being shared with the UK.

The Commission has the sole competence to negotiate with third countries, which the UK now is, on behalf of the EU on the setting of fishing opportunities for shared stocks. The bilateral negotiations between the Commission, on behalf of the EU, and the UK began on 11 November.I will go into more detail on these consultations later.

The European Commission published its proposal on 2022 fishing opportunities on 4 November. However, the stocks which the EU shares with the UK were presented in the proposal as pro memoria, that is, pending the timing and outcome of negotiations with the UK. This means that for the majority of stocks of interest to Ireland, the Commission did not set down total allowable catch levels in its formal proposal. To ensure the sustainability impact assessment could go ahead this year, I decided to again use the ICES scientific advice as the basis for this year's sustainability impact assessment. The ICES advice forms the basis of the scientific advice used by the Commission. Therefore, the ICES advice for the relevant stocks provides suitable guidance for the TAC figures which would normally be proposed by the Commission.This allowed for a meaningful public consultation and realistic engagement with our stakeholders. It also allowed the Marine Institute and Bord Iascaigh Mhara, BIM, to produce the biological and socio-economic assessments.Based on the experience of this first year post-Brexit and the changes this has led to in the process of setting fishing opportunities for the EU, I have asked my officials to review the SIA process and to propose adjustments to the timing and procedures for next year. I want the processes of the SIA to continue to provide a meaningful and effective contribution to how Ireland prepares for negotiations on fishing opportunities.

Ireland’s total allocation of quotas in 2021 amounted to a total value of approximately €229 million. This figure does not include very valuable inshore species which are not subject to total allowable catches and are fished by the Irish fleet in our inshore waters. These include stocks such as crab, whelk, scallop and lobster. The waters surrounding Ireland contain some of the most productive fishing grounds in the EU. We have a duty of care to protect their biological richness and, as such, they must be managed responsibly and sustainably. The landing obligation, which aims to eliminate the wasteful and unsustainable practice of discarding, has been fully implemented since 2019. The practical application of the landing obligation has been challenging for operators, requiring changes in fishing practices and behaviour. However, my Department, with BIM, continues to work with fishers to adapt and develop the most selective and sustainable fishing methods. The efforts of our fishers in this matter must be recognised.

Another key feature of the Common Fisheries Policy is the setting of total allowable catches and quotas to deliver maximum sustainable yield. Fishing at maximum sustainable yield, FMSY, is the largest average catch or yield that can be continuously taken from a stock under existing environmental conditions. For 2021, 35 stocks of interest to Ireland are fished below maximum sustainable yield. In 2013, this number was only 20. The number of stocks over fished has also declined to 11 in 2021 from highs of 22 in previous years. This is a significant achievement and Ireland will continue to work with stakeholders, the Commission, other member states and third countries to build on this tangible progress to achieve our objectives of healthy fish stocks and sustainable fishing.

As I mentioned earlier, the bilateral consultations with the UK for 2022 for shared stocks began on 11 November and are ongoing. I am fully engaged in this process and Ireland’s position and our concerns are inputted through the co-ordination meetings with the Commission organised through the Council Working Party.We are hopeful that agreement can be reached in the next day or so, which will allow the outcome to be discussed at the Council on 12 and 13 December and feed into the TAC and quota regulation for 2022. However, if this is not possible, there is a contingency plan in place. Under the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, in the event that agreement with the UK cannot be reached by 20 December, the Trade and Co-operation Agreement provides for each party to set provisional TACs applying from 1 January at the level advised by ICES, which is the scientific level.

This week, the Commission published its plan for provisional TACs for the first three months of 2022. This would see TACs for most stocks set at 25% of their 2021 TAC level, with the full 2022 TAC applied for coastal state stocks such as mackerel and blue whiting. While that situation would not be ideal, if needed, it provides certainty and continuity for our fishing industry into the new year.

Management arrangements for three migratory species in the north-east Atlantic in which Ireland has an interest, namely, blue whiting, Atlanto-Scandian herring and mackerel, are negotiated by means of a coastal states framework between the parties in whose waters significant concentrations of these stocks are to be found and which have normally had a track record in those three fisheries.

The coastal states negotiations for 2022 commenced in October and were conducted mainly by video conference. Agreement was reached on setting the TACs for blue whiting at 752,000 tonnes, for Atlanto-Scandian herring at 598,000 tonnes and for mackerel at 794,000 tonnes. The TAC for blue whiting is based on the advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, ICES, and is in line with the long-term management strategy for the stock. This represents a cut of 19% in the TAC. The TAC for mackerel is in line with the ICES advice based on the maximum sustainable yield approach and represents a reduction of 7% compared with the 2021 TAC.

The 2014 sharing arrangement for mackerel between the EU, Norway and the Faroe Islands expired at the end of 2020. All the coastal state parties recognised the need to reach an agreement on quota-sharing arrangements for all three stocks. Therefore, all agreed to engage in further work on sharing arrangements early next year. These discussions are likely to be very challenging. Ireland will pursue our position that the share set aside for Iceland and the Russian Federation in the 2014 agreement was too high and must be reduced.

Earlier this year, Norway and the Faroes set unacceptably high unilateral quotas for mackerel for 2021. I have made my concerns on this matter clear and called on Commissioner Sinkeviius to reject completely these unilateral and unsustainable actions. If this unacceptable behaviour by Norway or the Faroes is repeated in 2022, the responsible parties, namely, the EU and the UK, must work together and use all available tools so that there are real and effective consequences for such behaviour. I continue to make clear that the EU has available to it the possibility of using trade sanctions if other means are not effective. However, I hope that forthright negotiation between all parties will bring a satisfactory resolution to the issue.

On the sustainability impact assessment, SIA, as mentioned, the stocks the EU shares with the UK are presented in the Commission’s proposal as pro memoria. For Ireland this meant that all but two stocks are listed in the pro memoria method. In order for the SIA to be carried out, the ICES scientific advice for the stocks has been used as a basis for the SIA. As part of that SIA, an open consultation process was initiated, whereby stakeholders were asked to submit their comments and observations on the Commission proposal for fishing opportunities for next year and the ICES advice. From 4 November, an online web portal on was activated to enable the transmission of electronic submissions for consideration. Six submissions to the public consultation were received. The full content of all the submissions received by the deadline will be published on the fishingnet.iewebsite.

In addition to the written submissions, I convened a meeting of stakeholders, including fishing industry representatives and environmental NGOs, on 1 December. The purpose of this meeting was to give a further opportunity to stakeholders to outline their positions on the many aspects of this proposal and the scientific advice. I thank all the stakeholders for their contributions to this impact assessment.

Stakeholders set out a range of positions. However, there were also many commonalities. I agree with many of the sentiments expressed through the consultation process. I consider that all of them have the same objective, which is sustainable fishing and the protection of our fishing resource and marine ecosystem for future generations.

There is a clear call for adherence to the advice on setting TACs in accordance with fishing at maximum sustainable yield from stakeholders. We must also make use of the provisions of the western waters multi-annual plan to deal with stocks where scientific advice indicates the stock is in poor shape.

In recent years, in order to reduce catches of depleted stocks in mixed fisheries, TACs were set as by-catch only at levels that help the biomass of these vulnerable stocks to recover to sustainable levels and these were complemented by remedial technical measures in the Celtic sea.

The Marine Institute and BIM have made an invaluable contribution to the assessment of the Commission’s proposal, which is contained in the sea fisheries sustainability impact assessment, which is before the committee today. I would briefly like to set out the findings contained in that assessment. With regard to the biological assessment, from a purely biological perspective the Marine Institute’s view, which coincides with the ICES view, is that there has been an improvement in the status of some fish stocks. However, others remain a concern. In the impact assessment, the Marine Institute summarises the pressure on the 74 stocks dealt with in the 2021 stock book and compares this assessment with the same evaluation presented in previous years' stock books. The number of sustainably fished stocks has increased to 35 in 2021. In terms of percentages this is an increase of 47%. The percentage and number of stocks overfished also declined to 11 stocks or 15%. The number of stocks with unknown status has remained the same. It is good to see stocks on an upward trend for 2022. It must be remembered that as recently as 2013 there were only 20 sustainably fished stocks and now there are 35.

There are multiple reasons why stocks have unknown status, including short-time series of biological data, conflicting input data, low catches or insufficient sampling data or missing catch information. Over time the percentage of stocks with unknown pressure and state indicators has declined. The specific details for all stocks are available in the sustainability impact assessment which will be laid before the Dáil and in the stock book which was prepared by the Marine Institute and is available on their website.

As I indicated earlier, BIM has based the socio-economic assessment on the ICES advice. Therefore it is important to highlight that these estimates may change, depending on the final TACs agreed between the EU and UK. As this advice is for single stock assessment, we can expect significant changes for stocks in mixed fisheries where a particular stock is depleted. This is the case for cod stocks around the coast, and the TACs will be set for demersal stocks where cod is a by-catch to support the protection and rebuilding of such depleted stocks. If the TACs were to be agreed as the single stock advice recommends, we would see a net reduction in fishing opportunity of 7% by volume in tonnes and 5% by value. This would amount to a direct income reduction of €11.8 million. For the demersal, whitefish, sector, while this would mean a 2% increase in volume of fishing activity it would equate to a reduction of 3% by value. For the pelagic sector it would result in a reduction of 9% by volume and 7% by value with a direct income reduction of €7.9 million. This is primarily due to the decrease in mackerel, mainly from the advice but also for the progressive application of the TCA.

In addition to the direct losses of quota reductions to the fleet, income would also be lost from the processing sector. This would obviously have a knock-on effect for employment. BIM further estimates, on the basis of the most recent employment surveys of the catching sector, that if the TACS were set in accordance with the single stock advice it could impact 248 full-time and part-time jobs.

The Commission's November proposal does not include the Hague preferences, which are additional amounts of quota that Ireland claims for important whitefish stocks when the TACs fall below set levels. Because the provisional quotas set out in the Commission’s contingency plans are based on the 2021 quotas, the Hague preferences are included in these amounts. However, we cannot take the preferences for granted, as we know from this battle every year. Many member states object strenuously to their application as the additional quota for Ireland comes off their allocations. Ensuring that the preferences are applied will be a key political objective for me in the negotiations, as it was last year and always is from a national point of view.

On the strategic impact assessment, the sea fisheries sustainability impact assessment provides a good picture of the state of stocks and possible implications for the year ahead. I would like to thank and acknowledge all those who contributed to the production of this impact assessment.While it is based on ICES advice, rather than TACs proposed by the Commission, it highlights the potential for significant impacts on the Irish fishing industry. There are some stocks where ICES has issued advice for zero catches. However, with the implementation of the landing obligation and the requirement to land all catches, including by-catches, from such stocks this would lead to “choke” situations in mixed fisheries.

In its proposal, the Commission refers to the establishment of specific TACs for by-catches of these stocks as was done for 2020 and 2021.

The proposal highlights the difficulty of fishing all stocks in a mixed fishery at maximum sustainable yield at the same time. The Commission also points out the need to strike a balance between the potential for severe socioeconomic impacts and the need to achieve a good environmental status for stocks. I will be supportive of a similar approach as was taken in previous years for these depleted stocks.

I look forward to hearing the views of members and answering any questions.