Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

In that case, I will leave the detail of my speech for Members to read and I will make some general comments. We have a number of concerns in regard to the Commission's new approach. The Commission wants to take a precautionary approach whereby it deems there is insufficient data available and wants to apply automatic cuts of somewhere between 15% and 25%. In this impact assessment, we make the point that we can provide data and reasonable information on trends that in some cases actually suggest the stock is not under pressure. In those instances, we will insist the Commission takes on board the data that is available to make an educated decision in terms of the health of fish stocks and issues such as fishing effort and TACs for certain stocks next year.

Much of the ICES and Marine Institute data is highly credible and is accepted by the Commission. The view that we should be taking decisions on the basis of scientific advice is one that needs to be adopted whether it represents good or bad news for fishermen. In many of the smaller fisheries, we might have an indication that the fishery is remaining consistent and there is no evidence to suggest it is under pressure, which can be measured by landings, the size of fish being landed and so on. While that data may not be sufficient to put in place a maximum sustainable yield policy, it still gives us a good indication of the health of the stock. We should be making our decisions based on the data that is available, of which there is a huge amount. The stock book which we launched this morning is the equivalent of a fish bible in terms of its level of detail.

I thank the Marine Institute for helping to prepare me to make arguments based on science rather than based on emotion, so we can get the best possible deal to protect stocks and, indeed, maintain a viable commercial fishery in the fisheries where that makes sense for next year. If Members have comments, I will take them on board. They may have specific questions and I understand we will have some 20 minutes for questions at the end of the debate.

See this speech in context