Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Michael Collins. First, on the fuel subsidy, the Deputy pointed out that in my opening statement, I outlined the real challenges we have had over the past couple of years. Biggest of all has been the Brexit challenge and the impact that has had on quota. Of course, we fought in every way we could to try to protect the sector from any impact. Unfortunately it was not possible to protect it fully, given that in terms of full outcome of the trade and co-operation agreement, a no-deal scenario would have been really damaging for the fishing sector. We know that because we discussed it here on many occasions. One third of the fish we catch is caught in British waters and access to those waters was really important, so it was really difficult. That has been a challenge and one we have worked hard with our fishers to deal with. Since the start of the year, as with many other sectors of society, we have had the fuel challenge emerging from the illegal invasion of Ukraine. That led to an immediate spike in fuel for fishing vessels. Marine gas oil is different from a lot of other fuel, in that there is no Revenue tax applied to it and the VAT is reclaimable. There is no capacity to reduce the Revenue tax because it is not there. It spiked from around 60 cent per litre before the invasion to more than €1 per litre very quickly afterwards. It has gone up and down since then. Shortly after the illegal invasion, I met the fishers at their request to discuss that challenge. All of the fisher representatives coming together made the request to me for a second-month tie-up scheme to try to address and help with the impact on fuel. The sea-fisheries task force, which I set up last year, had recommended that this year, there would be a one-month tie-up available to every boat and that was in play. I had that progressing but they asked for a second month, specifically because of the real challenges the fleet was experiencing from fuel. I moved and delivered that, and implemented it. That meant an extra €12 million to the whitefish sector. When you look at that in terms of the financial allocation to our fleet, it is similar to the financial allocation France and Spain have applied to their fleets. That has been in place since June and is running until the end of November. I stepped in and delivered that much-needed €12 million to support the sector. The sector has been requesting that I do something on top of that measure, similar to what France and Spain have done. However, I have been assessing how the measure put in place has been working. Other member states did not do that. They took a different approach but with a similar level of investment relative to the size of their fleets. That runs until the end of November. We have seen a spike in the past couple of weeks. It has gone down again in the last week but it spiked to over €1 in terms of the international benchmark between a week and two weeks ago. It has come back down to the mid to high 80s in the last few days. That is the international benchmark price. It would be higher than that in terms of the actual pump price for vessels because of transport etc. I am assessing the situation again in light of that and looking at the challenges because I am keen on ensuring that we have appropriate supports in place for our fishing sector.

Some have indicated there is a fund available at European level that I am simply leaving behind by not applying such an additional support scheme. However, what the European Commission has done is provide flexibility for member states to use some of their unspent or future European Maritime and Fisheries Fund money to pay out in terms of reduced fuel costs. It is not that there is a separate fund. It would mean using funding that is allocated and earmarked for the industry and investment in the industry. It would mean using that instead as a direct upfront payment to deal with the pressures at the moment. I have never ruled that out. I have said that I have been continuing to monitor the situation and continuing to monitor the impact of the €12 million that I have already put in place. I am looking at that afresh because none of us know where we are going with fuel. We had all hoped it would taper off and reduce but that has not been the case and prices have spiked again. I am looking at and assessing that afresh again.

The Deputy also indicated there that this Government has given away the right to fish, to foreign governments. That is not something this Government has done. As he is aware, there has been a Common Fisheries Policy established since the early 1980s, whereby the percentage share each country has of various fish stocks was set and allocated. The percentages were based on the amount of catching different countries were doing at that time. Some countries got higher percentages of stocks, some countries got lower percentages, based on how much they were fishing at that time. That was in the early 1980s. That was done as a management tool to manage the waters generally, because as we know whenever you do not manage waters or manage stocks, they get depleted and they get fished out. It was set in the early 1980s and despite many reviews and many tugs of war at European level since, that overall allocation key for various stocks between countries has stayed the same. In order to change it at European level you have to get a qualified majority vote at a European Council meeting. The one big impact to that allocation key has been Brexit, because the UK has left. That has disrupted the allocation key in a way that has been unfair to us. That is something I am looking to get addressed and I am raising it at each and every Council meeting and every engagement I have with my colleagues. The point I am making is that it should be addressed in terms of the Common Fisheries Policy review that is to conclude over the next number of months. The unfair burden we have should be addressed as part of that. It is a system that has been in place since the early 1980s so it is not something this Government has done. In fact everything I have done as Minister has been to try to improve our fisheries situation and to try and get more quota for our fleet. I have been battling for that and have voted against many things at European level in order to assert and follow that objective.

The Deputy has also mentioned the decommissioning scheme, which he says he and the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation oppose. The Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation, along with every other fishing representative organisation, would have been part of the sea-fisheries task force group, which I set up. Post Brexit and its massive impact on our fisheries, I brought all of the fishing voices to advise me on how I could best support the sector and how we could respond to that challenge. They unanimously put forward their task force report to me.

One of their asks was a decommissioning scheme to address the size of the fleet to make sure their boats were economic and viable. That was their request and all the fisheries organisations unanimously signed up to that. It is not a situation that any of us want to be in. I wish I could bring about a situation where we gather more quota and, as I said, I am trying to do that all of the time. All of us, both politically and the fishery representatives, know we have to deal with the situation as it currently stands and as we try to change it. As I have said, one of their recommendations was a decommissioning scheme. That is why I have come forward and followed through in relation to their request to me.

Deputy Michael Collins mentioned boats being tied up while foreign boats fish. The request was that I do a tie-up scheme. The task force asked me for that, that is, all of the fishing representatives I brought together. They asked for a one month tie-up scheme for 2022. They subsequently asked for a second month tie-up scheme to respond to the fuel challenge, which I addressed earlier on. The way a tie-up scheme works is that one out of every three boats ties up in any given month. It does not change the level of quota we have. We still fish our full quota. It is not that other countries are in fishing our national quota. Our national quota still gets fully fished but it means that instead of there being three boats out fishing the quota, there are two boats out fishing the same quota. One boat ties up at the pier side and that boat gets paid to tie-up at the pier side. It gets paid the equivalent of what it would have made if it had been out fishing. That means that the two boats that are still out fishing have in theory an extra 50% fish to catch to make their trips to sea more viable. That is how the tie-up works. One boat ties up and instead of three boats going to sea, two go to sea. They catch the same quota the three would have caught and, therefore, they are catching extra fish. It is about making them more economically viable. I was asked to do that. It is not that others are fishing our fish because the boats out fishing, which are not tied up, are catching the full quota. It is not that others are catching the fish and we are leaving the fish behind.

On the issue of the scad mackerel, Deputy Michael Collins asked for a reallocation between boats. That is always challenging and contested between various sectors of the fleet. Within the fleet everyone wants more quota. They want a reallocation of it that leaves individual boats with more quota so while they will always those be in favour of that, there will be as many against it.

As regards the EU negotiations for bluefin tuna, they are conducted by the European Commission with International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICAT. I do not negotiate directly with ICAT as that is something the European Commission does on behalf of all member states. It is something I have raised at Council meetings but because it is a fish we did not traditionally have, achieving a quota is very difficult. However, it is something that I continuously try to make progress on.