Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair, the Minister and his officials for coming before the committee. I have many questions and my colleagues do as well. To be fair to them, I will try to go through all of my questions together. Perhaps the Minister can take note of them to answer them. Discussion on the quotas and decommissioning is coming up and is of concern to many fishermen.

As regards bluefin tuna, which the Minister mentioned, throughout the 1990s Irish fishing boats from ports on the south-west coast targeting albacore tuna by means of driftnets also fished for cod and landed bluefin tuna in waters stretching from the Bay of Biscay to the Celtic Sea. One boat in particular that fished from Casltetownbere targeted bluefin alone while fishing by means of long lines. At the European Council meeting held in December 1998 bluefin tuna became an EU quota species and the then newly appointed Minister for the Marine, Deputy Joe Walsh, by his own admission and in response to a question put to him in the Dáil on his return from Brussels by former a Minister, Eamon Gilmore, admitted that Ireland had failed to apply for a share in the EU total allowable catch, TAC, for bluefin tuna permitted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICCAT. In every year following 1998 successive Irish Ministers have failed to and refused to even apply for a quota for Irish fishing boats to fish bluefin tuna. This is despite the fact that north Atlantic bluefin tuna has in every year over the past 25 years gradually migrated for its autumn and winter feeding grounds north of the Bay of Biscay to the west and south coasts of Ireland. This northwards migration of bluefin tuna has been proven by research conducted on bluefin tuna conducted by scientists from both Stanford and Exeter Universities, working out of Galway and that was published in August 2020. Having regard to the rights of coastal states under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, UNCLOS, and in particular having regard to those same rights pursuant to the agreement on the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks reached in New York in November 1995 in accordance with UNCLOS, can the Minister explain why has Ireland not applied for a bluefin quote for Irish fishermen and fisherwomen at any time since December 1998 and has, in fact, refused to apply for such a quota? Is there any rational basis for refusing to apply for a bluefin tuna quota having regard to the fact that bluefin migrates northwards into Irish waters from late July of every year where it remains while feeding on native Irish stocks of fish including spawning and nursery stocks until January or as late as February the following year prior to its migration southwards to itself breed and spawn in tropical waters? The Minister might be able to answer that. There is far more on bluefin tuna but I have to move on other issues related to decommissioning.

Decommissioning is a very important issue and the Minister may be able to answer my questions. Why are different criteria applied to boats decommissioning in other EU states than those being applied to Irish fishermen? Second, is it true that fishing fleets in countries that were temporarily paid aid to cease fishing activity will not have to pay back this money when they decommission their boats, as is required of Irish fishermen who also temporarily ceased fishing? If I am going too quickly please ask me to stall and I can go back. Third, in the conditions attached to the Irish tie-up scheme, were Irish fishermen notified that this money would be returned if they later applied to and were successful in accessing the decommissioning scheme? Fourth, does the Minister personally agree that money paid to compensate these fishermen for loss of earnings should be returned and have these fishermen not lost enough under this Government by its gifting away of 25% of the actual fish they were catching? Fifth, will the Minister admit that the 15%, which is misleading to the Dáil and which the Minister keeps mentioning, that fishermen have lost is incorrect as this is a paper figure and does not reflect that the actual fish given away represents a minimum of 25% of the fish they were catching and landing?

This will be my last question and I am sorry for taking up so much time but this is important. The Minister is aware and always said to me that the organisations were unanimous in relation to decommissioning and he has often accused me of not supporting it and then of supporting it. I never supported it and never will support decommissioning and I want to make that abundantly clear to the Minister. Fishermen have come to me and said that the game is over as far as they are concerned. Their livelihoods have been ruined. Can things be sped up with a compensation package so that they can get out and put bread and butter on the table? The Minister told me there was unanimous agreement by all organisations. Is he aware that the Irish South and West Fish Producer's Organisation insisted that the report produced by the taskforce must record the fact that organisation would not sign up to the decommissioning scheme that was to be based on the criteria were proposed in the report. This would clearly imply that the recommendations made by that taskforce were not unanimous. Can the Minister tell me if other members of the taskforce expressed similar views?