Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thought the Chairman was going to let Deputy Ferris back in again.

I thank the Minister for the presentation. In his opening comments he said he is constantly being told that he should get more quota for Irish fishermen. We do not seem to have a high-level vision at European level of Ireland’s position in terms of fishing. In the past five to six years we were constantly told how much Germany is the paymaster of Europe and we have to toe the line and do everything we are told by Germany. Everyone does bend the knee to Germany and we have seen the outcome of that for every other country. Since we joined the EU we have contributed fishing stocks to every other member state. The EU changed the rules as we were negotiating membership to make protection of fishing stocks the sole competency of the Commission, which was its only sole competency at the time. That was because they knew what we were bringing to the table and we did not because our industry was underdeveloped. We should make a high-level case at every opportunity in Europe and we should have a vision. Sinn Féin’s vision is of a united Ireland and that is what the party works towards and will try to achieve at some point. We do not seem to have a vision for the fishing industry. Our vision seems to be to make the best of an ever-decreasing cake every year. We just manage to get as much out of the declining stocks as we can every year.

The quota uplifts are already included in the proposed cuts by the Commission. What is on the table from the Commission already includes quota uplifts. Is that a correct interpretation? If it is, the CFP changes were sold on the basis that while it would be difficult especially in the demersal fleet for fishermen to meet the discard ban, there would be a quota uplift that would recognise the difficulties and see how that might be achieved. What would the total allowable catch, TAC, proposals be if they did not include the quota uplift? How much of a quota uplift is included in the TACs that are proposed?

What role does the social impact assessment play in the negotiations and does it carry any weight? Is it just a negotiating tool for the Minister? I would like to see more done in future years in terms of the social impact assessment rather than just looking at the value and loss in value of landings. There are bigger social impacts evident around the coast in terms of the impact on communities, for example, in increased emigration and loss of human capital. I would like to see the assessment expanded in future because we were told the Commission is supposed to be looking more closely at social impacts.

My final question relates to north west herring and the need to have some form of TAC, in particular for small-scale fisheries. That is vitally important, especially for boats of less than 15 m and less than 10 m. They should have some amount of TAC because it is one of the few types of fishing that is sustainable for them if they could get access to quota. It is vitally important that some TAC would be negotiated in respect of north west herring.