Dr. Cecil Beamish:

I had better preface my remarks by saying that many of the comments were of a political or policy nature and it would not be appropriate for me, as a civil servant, to enter into that area, so I must constrain what I say. If I go beyond that, please pull me back.

One of the main issues of concern to the Irish fishing industry is relative stability. Some of the principles were agreed in the 1970s and the code was rolled out from the early 1980s. The reforms in 1992 and 2002 both had requests for change to the relative stability provisions. Neither of them was successful. In the context of the current reform, it was the subject of a lengthy debate in 2009 and 2010 with those in the fishing industry. Some in the fishing industry demanded larger shares. Given the political reality that such demands had not been acceded to in the two previous reforms, greater thought on how to approach that issue in the current reform is needed. The then Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Tony Killeen, published a document which, following discussion on relative stability, had the support of the fishing industry. It stated: "Ireland believes that Relative Stability and its attendant TACs & Quotas, whilst imperfect, must remain the primary community mechanism to manage fish stocks." Ireland firmly believes that, while imperfect, the TAC and quota system must remain the bedrock of access to fishery resources in the Common Fisheries Policy. It continued: "However, Ireland advocates that adjustments can be made to the present share out (relative stability) of a number of white fish and pelagic stocks so that the future allocation of Community resources is better adjusted to match today's needs and is seen to deliver increased shares of stocks adjacent to shores for coastal Member States through a range of mechanisms including the improved use of swaps." It was looking at the use of mechanisms that were within the realm of what was likely to be proposed to try to achieve progress in that area. In the most recent stock allocation of boarfish a couple of years ago, Ireland achieved two thirds of EU stock. This is now an important fishery, with 56,000 tons of quota this year.

The Common Fisheries Policy reform is a very large package and legal instrument and not all of it is available for members, as the financial fund that would support the policy is not agreed and the areas in which spending would be prioritised or permitted have not yet been finalised. Thus, there are parts of the CFP that have not been settled and are not available to members.
One of the proposals the Minister put into the package in respect of discards was agreed in December during our Presidency. The terminology that is used for a discard ban in Europe is a landing obligation; in other words, one cannot throw fish away but must land them. I will quote: "When a landing obligation for a fish stock is being introduced [in other words, when a discard ban for fish stock is being introduced], fishing opportunities [which is code for quotas] shall be set taking account of the change from setting fishing opportunities to reflect landings to setting fishing opportunities to reflect catches on the basis that for first and subsequent years, discarding of that stock will no longer be allowed." The principle was put into the package agreed in February that quotas must be set, once a discard ban is brought into account, taking account of the fact that fish that were previously being discarded will now be landed. The quota must be adjusted to reflect that. That could be very significant. If we look at the levels of discards in Ireland between 2003 and 2009, among our top ten commercial white fish species there was an average catch of 36,600 tons per year, with associated discards of 14,000 tons per year. That gave an average discard rate of 38%. Deputy Ó Cuív asked about the impact of this. The figures are all set out clearly in the atlas produced by the Marine Institute and BIM for the Department, which is available from the institute or BIM. We set out the level of discards for each fishery in order to examine the practical implications.

With regard to overall discards, the FAO did a global review and found that the north east Atlantic, the area in which Ireland operates, has the highest discard level in the world. It was estimated at 1.3 million tons, and the majority of discards took place in EU fisheries.