Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are a number of issues I wish to raise with the Minister and I would ask that he might note them. There will probably be about four or five issues. The first one is a Dutch corporation, Parlevliet & Van der Plas B.V., which is a major international fishing corporation. It is the owner of three of the largest fishing vessels in the world. Annelies Ilenais 145 m long and the Margiris is 136.1 m long. These are the two largest fishing vessels in the world. These were joined by the Helen Mary, with all three vessels under the one company. Two are registered in Lithuania and I am unsure as to where theHelen Maryis registered. The reason I mention all three vessels is that all three regularly fish around the coast of Ireland. They do so legally under Common Fisheries Policy rules and access quotas from various member states legally. It is very hard to take a presentation like the one the Minister has given today, where he talks about sustainable fishing, which I agree with, and applying International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, and science rules, which I also agree with, because we must sustain our fisheries.

We are asking our fishing industry, which, as the Minister knows is struggling and much of which has been forced to decommission in recent times, to play by those rules, while the Common Fisheries Policy allows vessels of that size, all owned by the one company, to literally hoover up fish in the sea in very questionable circumstances. I want to get a sense of what Ireland is doing to challenge the utter double standards of that being allowed to continue, where the Common Fisheries Policy allows a company to buy up quota from various countries and industrialise fishing, while we are asking fishermen in Ireland and, in fairness, in other member states to fish sustainably. How is that allowed and how is that double standard, which is staring us in the face, allowed to continue? What is our Minister doing to challenge that? As the Minister knows, the presence of those monster vessels off our coast has been publicised again and again in the Irish media. That is my first question.

My second question is on Eurostat, which is the European statistics website for accessing statistics on catch. Looking at that, from 2018 right through to today, one cannot see on that website figures for catch landed by Irish vessels. It is marked "C" and when one checks what "C" stands for, it stands for "confidential". Will the Minister check to see if there is a reasonable explanation as to why that is the case? I do not expect the Minister to give me an answer today but I want to raise it as it has been raised with me. I ask that he has that checked by his Department officials to see why that is the case. There may well be a benign reason for it but I would like to get an explanation for it.

The third issue I wish to raise is the coastal states negotiation. The Minister will know that major fishing interests - I am thinking here of Norway, in particular, but also of the Faroe Islands and Iceland - have been building up a mackerel industry without any reference to ICES. Here we are in this presentation, and I believe rightly, asking our fishing communities to play by the science and to sustain our fishery, but we know that is not happening with regard to the fishing industries in Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Indeed, the Norwegian pelagic industry has done a deal with the UK for access to its waters, where the numbers and the tonnage are absolutely eye-watering. Apparently, 65% of the Norwegian mackerel fishery was caught in UK waters, which is just over €200 million worth of mackerel caught in UK waters this year. I know the Minister has been challenging this but I want to make a clear statement again that this is just madness. We trade with Iceland and Norway. The Faroe Islands have independent status but are under Denmark, which is a member state. How has this been allowed to happen? As the Minister knows, mackerel is a migratory fish and this is having a profound impact. As he knows also, they are looking to secure access to the Irish exclusive economic zone to fish while they are not playing by the rules. Can I have an up-to-date position on all of that from the Minister and how we intend to challenge that robustly? The Minister has worked with the Irish fishing sector, and I appreciate that, but I want an up-to-date position from him on that.

I also want to take the opportunity to reiterate the point around the fuel subsidy. I strongly urge the Minister to look at a fuel subsidy for the entire fishing sector. In our alternative budget in the past two years, we have demonstrated how this could be done where it would not place a very significant burden on the overall budget which is there.

On inshore and offshore, the Minister referred to this when we raised it with him before and to the tie-up schemes. Those are tie-up schemes which are under the Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund. Those are separate issues entirely but the inshore sector was never able to avail of tie-up schemes. I strongly urge the Minister to see if something can be done. I am hearing this from all sections of the fishing industry, so I ask the Minister to give me an up-to-date position on what can be done. I cannot urge him strongly enough to put something on the table.

Finally, I raise with the Minister a related issue which is the budget for 2024. He will have heard me speaking about this in the Dáil. This budget allocation has essentially been halved. I believe the Minister will acknowledge that last year’s budget allocation was essentially Brexit Adjustment Reserve fund expenditure, which was a redundancy payment for the loss of quota and the further decommissioning and erosion of our fleet. It is greatly disappointing that we are now back to the 2022 budget allocation and if one allows for inflation, we face a cutback.

At a time when the Minister acknowledges the millions of euro lost to our industry due to the projected ICES impact with regard to numbers, and acknowledges the definite loss of jobs, with further lay-offs and further redundancies, how can we stand over a budget that is going backwards? This is an industry which is crying out for support and I would argue that one of those is a fuel subsidy. When one looks at the figures, at the job losses, where 268 full-time equivalent jobs will be lost if this is goes through, and at a €12.4 million loss, a €9.2 million loss and a €3.24 million loss, this amounts to over €20 million. It is almost €25 million of a loss, with hundreds of further jobs lost.

How can we stand over a budget that is being reduced?