Mr. Seán O'Donoghue:

I thank the Chair and committee members for inviting us to this important meeting on two issues that are critical to us, which are, the total allowable catches, TACs, and quotas for 2022, and decommissioning. The timing of this meeting is good in that the December meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council starts on Sunday, 13 December. This is an opportune time to have this discussion.

There are a number of issues I want to address without going through all of the opening statement I have submitted in five minutes. The first of those is very important, in that the clout of the Council of Fisheries Ministers has been diminished in the light of Brexit and the trade and co-operation agreement, TCA. As we sit here today, the EU-UK bilateral negotiations have not been completed. Until they are completed, the council will not be able to, in essence, rubber-stamp the TACs and quotas for next year.

The key message I want to get across about the setting of TACs and quotas for next year is that the EU-UK bilateral agreement, which is part of the TCA, is critical. From an Irish point of view, approximately 58 of the 60-odd stocks in which we have an interest are covered in the TCA. If the TCA were to be taken out of consideration, the council will be left with two stocks to deal with. That is not going to apply only for this year. This is the new scenario in which we live, in light of Brexit and the TCA. We, as industry representatives, feel isolated, even aside from Covid, which is causing problems in terms of physical briefings. We feel we are being isolated and do not have the same input to the Fisheries Council, where all of these decisions were made in previous yeas, because of the EU-UK bilateral arrangement. We are emphasising to the Minister and to the committee that it is important a process is put in place to deal with the stakeholder involvement on the EU and UK ends.

When it comes to the total allowable catches, TACs, and quotas for next year, the one thing that will not happen either at the EU-UK bilateral discussion or, indeed, the Fisheries Council is a look at the relative stability percentage shares that member states have. That will not be dealt with at the December Fisheries Council. It will be dealt with, hopefully, by the Commission's report at the end of next year. We are demanding that there is a full review and change in those relative stability percentage shares. In terms of today, I have stuck rigidly to the TAC and quota proposals for next year.

There are a few big items that stick out and that I want to highlight. Something the Commission in bringing forward its proposals - it cannot put in figures at this stage until the EU-UK bilateral is finalised as such - seems to continually provide for is that the Common Fisheries Policy requires that not alone do you look at the biology and the sustainability of the stocks but that you must look at the socioeconomic effects as well. The Commission consistently failed to do that in its proposals as such and leaves it to the Council to do that even though the Council really does not have any power this year as they EU-UK bilateral will be looking at it.

One issue we really want to highlight is the mackerel situation and what Norway and the Fareo Islands did this year. Norway increased its quota by 55% or a whopping 100,000 tonnes. I am not getting the figure wrong here. It is 100,000 tonnes of extra mackerel. The Commission has been sitting on its hands here and preaching to us about sustainability. We have been after them over the past six months, that they need to bring in sanctions. They have the legal mechanisms to do this. We are calling on the Council, on Sunday and Monday next, to address this issue and instruct the Commission that this Norway and Fareo Islands reckless and irresponsible behaviour has to stop.