Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The Agriculture and Fisheries Council of Ministers meeting in Luxembourg last week had a heavy agenda of fisheries items which were of importance to the Irish fishing industry. I attended the meeting with my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries and forestry, Deputy Killeen.

In the run-up to, and during, the Council, the Minister of State and I had a series of meetings with the Federation of Irish Fishermen regarding the difficult issues facing the Irish fishing industry such as rising fuel costs, low prices at the quayside for fish, competition from cheap imports of fish, the effects of illegal, unrecorded and unregulated fishing and quota restrictions due to declining fish stocks. We also met EU Commissioner Borg on a bilateral basis the week before the Council and made a strong case for the need for a package of EU-funded measures to address the difficulties faced by fishermen across Europe but in Ireland, in particular, and to set out other priority issues for Ireland.

Three significant regulations achieved political approval at the Council. A proposal was agreed for a Council regulation establishing a Community system to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, commonly referred to as IUU. This important measure will address the high incidence of illegal fishing and significantly will tackle the marketing of fish and fishery products acquired through illegal fishing. After this measure comes into force in early 2010, all fishery products will require a certificate that they have been caught legally before they can be imported into the Community. This is a major regulation which has much international focus on its success and will represent good news for legal fishermen, as it will remove illegal products from the market. Ireland strongly supported this measure at the Council and also called for the Commission to develop effective labelling schemes in order that consumers can play a role by making an informed choice.

Political agreement was also achieved on a Council regulation on fishing authorisations for Community vessels in third country waters and third country vessels in Community waters, which is important to Ireland, given that we have responsibility for control of large fishing grounds. The third regulation agreed is a Council regulation on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the high seas from the adverse impacts of bottom fishing gears, which follows on from a UN resolution.

The annual setting of total allowable catches and quotas is an important process for Irish fishermen and I will press for the maximum possible allocations for Irish fishermen during the negotiations taking into account the scientific advice on the state of stocks. Another agenda point was a joint request by Ireland, France and Britain for a mid-year increase in the 2008 total allowable catch for cod in the Celtic Sea, based on jointly submitted scientific advice from our respective marine research institutes indicating positive developments in the state of the stock.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

This is an important issue for our fishermen as Ireland's 2008 quota is almost gone and the fishery must be closed soon. As cod is taken in a mixed fishery, its closure inevitably will lead to discarding, which cannot be justified. After strong pressure from Ireland, France and the United Kingdom, the Commission agreed to consider proposing a increase in the 2008 total allowable catch, if the latest scientific advice, due out at the end of last month, is sufficiently positive.

A further significant point for Ireland was the renewal of the fisheries partnership agreement with Mauritania which provides fishing opportunities for Community vessels in Mauritanian waters for the next four years. These opportunities are mainly of interest to our pelagic fleet.

The most immediately significant agenda item concerned the crisis in the European fishing industry and, in particular, the effects of the recent rapid increases in fuel costs. Ireland, together with all the other affected member states, conveyed in the strongest terms the depth of feeling of our fishermen on these issues and the seriousness of the situation facing them which has led to public protests across Europe, including Ireland.

Commissioner Borg stated he had listened carefully to the case made both in the lead-up to and at the Council and undertook to come to the next Council meeting on 15 July with a package of emergency measures to try to alleviate the crisis. He has flagged that these measures will be based on a commitment to addressing the over-capacity and over-exploitation issues in the long term. However, in the short term they may include funding of partial decommissioning to replace older vessels with more energy efficient ones, temporary cessation aid for vessels involved in such schemes, modifications to the de minimis aid rules, reductions in social security contributions for employees, support for research into fuel efficiency and the shift to energy-efficient technologies, as well as marketing measures to address the prices achieved at first point of sale, that is, the quayside. At the Council we pressed for additional EU funding to be made available and I made it clear that the package must include additional EU funding to provide for the implementation of these measures.

See this speech in context