Mr. Patrick Murphy:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for giving us the opportunity to come before the committee to highlight what is facing our industry. Two of the key topics, as identified by my two colleagues, are decommissioning and the total allowable catches, which, to explain how critical this is, is the amount of fish that each country is allowed to catch under the Common Fisheries Policy to ensure that the stocks remain healthy, that they are not overfished and that they would be there again the following year.

The fly in the ointment now is that Brexit has happened and the UK has taken away its waters from us. Under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA, deal that was negotiated, the UK got to catch and retain 75% of the fish in its waters, leaving 25% for the European Union countries. They also retain some entitlements for quota outside of their waters, within ours and other countries' within the EU. We are left with 15% of the pie - the best way to describe it - giving away 85% to the other countries which have access to these stocks.

We have been hit by Covid in the past two years. Our markets, our market share and the prices have been decimated. You will have seen only this week what fishermen are up against - the storms and gales that hit our coastline. If you are not out fishing, you are not earning. On top of that, there is this TCA deal that we feel we got very badly treated in. On top of this coming this year, the science is not very good for the total allowable catches and we are seeing our opportunities being decimated further and the stocks that are so important to us being cut. That will heighten the problems for our industry to try to earn a living. We are governed by a great many regulations, such as the landing obligation. If we fall foul of them in a mixed-stock fishery we find ourselves in problems and difficulties as well, which we learned yesterday during one of the meetings with the European Commission.

All these events have overtaken our industry and we are talking then about one of the solutions that seems to be presented to us, and that is decommissioning. We have seen decommissioning introduced into our fleet in the past number of years. This is the third such decommissioning scheme. Where I see fleets on the Continent modernising and building new boats to come to our waters to go fishing, we, on the other hand, are now seeing a proposal being presented to the Minister where 60 vessels will be decommissioned out of an active 180 vessels. On top of that, there is also off-registered tonnage to be decommissioned. At a rate of €5,000 per tonne, if that is what it will make, that is another six boats that will never enter our fishing industry, bringing us to a total of 66 boats.

This is what our industry is facing. We sit on the continental shelf. When I was growing up, I was taught that Ireland had the richest fishing grounds in the world. This is where fish come to spawn and breed. It is very hard for me, as a representative of my industry, to tell my fishermen that we are facing an unnecessary evil. We should be looking for more fish. The reason we should be doing so is that the Common Fisheries Policy is to be reviewed next year, as my colleague, Mr. O'Donoghue, pointed out. Before this review, when we will have a chance to get more fish, we are instead looking at getting rid of a third of our fleet. I find that very hard to take.

As the committee has seen in our presentations, as a member of the task force, our group pointed out the cost on the open market of entering the industry right across the different sectors. There is evidence of this on page 18 of the report where it states that it would cost more than €20,000 per gross tonne to get a tier 1 polyvalent vessel out of the industry. Despite this, the proposal is still on the table. We have an enormous problem in the south and west of Ireland with the amount of money that has been set out and the terms and conditions attached to the decommissioning scheme. We made sure this was included in the task force report. We are completely and utterly against these kinds of reductions, such as changing vessels because of their age or condition. Once a vessel meets the standards in the code of practice, it should be allowed go to sea and have the same opportunities as any other vessel in the sector, regardless of age.

The easiest way to explain this to listeners and to those looking in on the meeting is to say that, if you got into a taxi in Dublin and it took you 50 miles down the road, there would be no difference between taxis with different number plates. One taxi would not charge you more than another with an older number plate. It is the same for fishing vessels. Once they are capable and once the Marine Survey Office, MSO, signs off on their ability to go to sea to fish under the code of practice, they should be given the same opportunities. We see boats being bought for up to €7 million. As set out in the report, their gross tonnages, GTs, would value them at perhaps €1.5 million to €2 million. This is not right. It does not take into consideration the loss of the business or the goodwill that would be shown to people in other businesses for leaving the industry. It does not take into consideration the loss of this industry to these people for a minimum of five years. As we state in our submission, we find some of the terms and conditions relating to decommissioning a vessel crazy such as that the owner is responsible for breaking up and destroying the vessel. We do not know how much this will cost. That is unknown. We have had no indication. We have had guesswork and people have come in to us but we have seen no paperwork. We know how important it is, in this day and age, to make sure that all materials are disposed of correctly. This comes at a cost. On top of that, we see that crews are to be paid out of this. Again, we do not know what this will cost.

It is the same for the total allowable catches, TACs. It is very hard for our members to understand why we are at this juncture. They did nothing wrong. They followed the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy. They are fishing and working with agencies such as Bord Iascaigh Mhara to develop new technical measures and gear to actually avoid fish. There are a great many measures to avoid fish. There is nearly less of a net to catch fish than to avoid them. This is the reality of the industry we are working in. I thank the Chair for the opportunity to discuss this further and in greater detail through questions from the Deputies and Senators.