John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I wish to share my time with Deputy Ó Cuív. I thank the Minister for bringing the debate to the House tonight. He told me during the week that he would try to have a debate here before we adjourned for the holidays and it is important we recognise that he has come forward here tonight and given us an opportunity to talk about CFP reform.

I was Minister of State in the Department when then Commissioner Borg introduced the Green Paper in 2008. Obviously, it is a slow, tedious process. There were in the region of 17,000 responses to the Green Paper at the time and one can imagine the difficulties in teasing out all the different points of view put forward. I appreciate that the Minister has a difficulty on his hands right across the EU in the sense that he is dealing with some of the big players such as the French and the Spanish, all of whom want to protect and hold what they have. At that time, I remember Commissioner Borg stating there would be a radical reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. I do not know whether the Minister would describe what was put to him during the week as radical. I would contend it is not in so far as Irish fishermen are concerned. This will probably drag on until 2012 or probably 2013 before we get a final decision on these issues.

There are a number of issues for fishermen, some of whom are in contact with me - like many Deputies, I come from a coastal county - and the Minister himself has referred to them. The fishermen are concerned that the introduction of mandatory transferable quota rights for all member states would be detrimental to the Irish fishing industry as it would be only a matter of time before the Irish fishing industry was in the hands of large European companies. The Irish fishing industry is entitled to know how the European Commission can legally ring-fence the buying and selling of quota to individual member states in order that our quota does not end up in foreign ownership. In his reply, the Minister might outline his views on this area. Transferable quota rights must be introduced on a voluntary basis, if they are to be introduced at all.

The area of discards is a contentious issue which will not be resolved overnight, something on which I agree with the Minister. We need to bring forward suitable incentives to address the problem of discards effectively. The reality is that it is not practicable or environmentally favourable to land everything that is caught. The discards proposal must be based on the principles of avoidance, minimisation and incentives. Landing dead fish defeats the purpose. This is a key area on which the European Parliament will need to come forward with practical solutions to minimise the discarding to the lowest possible levels.

The fishermen are also concerned that there is not greater regionalisation of the Common Fisheries Policy. They feel it has been watered down to such an extent by the Commission that the proposal put forward will not deliver any meaningful regionalisation. The existing one-size-fits-all policy has failed to deliver for Irish fishermen, and this is their concern. This is a lost opportunity to introduce regional management structures that have the potential to a create simpler, cheaper and more effective CFP. Localised management structures with devolved powers have many positive effects, including increased responsibility on the part of stakeholders and a CFP more sensitive to local concerns. It is important that the Minister would continue to battle in this particular area to bring forward effective and workable regional management measures.

I welcome the establishment of a separate regime for small-scale fisheries. However, as currently proposed, it will exclude a large portion of the Irish fleet. It is important to recognise that all boats under 15 m in length must be included under these new provisions. Over 80% of the Irish fleet are small boats under 15 m in length, fishing mainly inshore and off small coastal islands in rough Atlantic waters. These boats are of considerable importance to the fishing communities around the coastline. It is also important to recognise that in many cases there is no alternative employment and that is an area where the Minister must take stock of what the fishermen are saying.

It is also important to recognise some good points of the Lisbon treaty. One of them is that the European Parliament, the MEPs from all political parties and none representing this country, will have a direct role in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. It is important that Irish MEPs would have their voice heard to ensure some of the concerns and difficulties facing Irish fishermen would be addressed through the CFP. They need to deal with the provision of the quota transfer rights, the discard measures and regionalisation. From speaking to Mr. Pat "The Cope" Gallagher, MEP and MEPs from other political parties in this country, they will be keeping an eye out and playing a role in ensuring the Minister will have full support in his battle to ensure Irish fishermen get a fair deal from the reform of the CFP.

The other area which arises every Christmas, which I dealt with and which the Minister dealt with last Christmas, is the Hague resolution. Fishermen would like this to be written in some form into the CFP proposals with which the Minister will be dealing. It happens on the table every Christmas where some countries want to take off the Hague preference, there is a row and the Irish fishermen insist on it being kept on. I am aware that the Federation of Irish Fishermen issued a statement following the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, proposals last week. They specifically called for the Hague preferences to be a de facto feature of the distribution of quota between countries. They are keen for this to be written in stone in future.

I wish to raise two further issues to which the Minister might respond, although he does not have much time to do so. The fishing industry is important to the country with approximately 11,000 people employed directly or indirectly. There are great opportunities in Europe now since 65% of fish is imported from outside the EU. There are important opportunities for Irish fishermen in this regard.

Deputy McHugh raised the issue of mackerel. Last Sunday, I read in a UK newspaper about great concern being expressed about the breakdown between the Faroe Islands, Iceland and the EU. There is indiscriminate fishing of mackerel now which will cause major problems for the mackerel industry in future, especially for Irish fishermen. What action does the Minister intend to take in this area? The headline stated "Super trawlers sail in to obliterate stocks of mackerel". As Deputy McHugh suggested, huge boats and factory-type ships are now running wild on the mackerel industry. Will the Minister comment on this?

At an IFA meeting last night I met our friend Richie Flynn from the IFA who deals with the aquaculture industry. It is important that the Minister deals effectively with the aquaculture industry. This is not an easy problem to solve because of the licensing system. However, I call on the Minister to try to put in place a system that would speed up the issuing of existing licences and new licences in future.

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