Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the fisheries sustainable impact assessment. I thank the Minister for giving us a chance to address this important issue. The Common Fisheries Policy is widely accepted as having failed. The policy deliberately set out to hamper and destroy the Irish fishing industry. It has been said by other speakers that prior to our entry into the European Economic Community, EEC, the rules were changed to ensure equal access to all fisheries waters within the European Union after we joined. That left us at a very severe disadvantage, and even at that stage we were unable to negotiate around fisheries because our team was told that if it wanted to discuss fisheries, all the talks would be called off. We are living with that legacy from over 40 years ago, as the EEC, as it was, set out deliberately to steal the resources of a so-called member or partner state in the Community that was established.

Every year we discuss the issue and the total allowable catch, TAC, in December in Brussels, and that legacy continues to place a stranglehold on the Irish fishing industry. I often wonder what the west coast of Ireland would have looked like if over the past 40 years we had equal access and a fair share, or if the European Community looked to develop smaller nations and allowed them to reach their full potential. We would not have had the unbalanced development we had, where Dublin now holds almost half the population of the country. Instead, we would have had a vibrant west coast rather than an area which is in decline and suffering depopulation.

Fishing in Donegal is not only an economic activity but it is also a way of life. It is central to the identity and prosperity of Killybegs, where I come from, which is 85% dependent on fishing for employment. Every other coastal community has an equal dependence. The seafood industry here employs almost 12,000 people and contributed more than €700 million to the economy last year. Fishing communities are located in all our most disadvantaged areas, and anything we can do to develop and grow the industry will lead to increased employment in those areas.

The European Commission has presented its proposals for the 2012 fishing opportunities for certain stocks in the Atlantic and the North Sea. The total allowable catch for some stocks, such as monkfish and Celtic Sea cod, herring, haddock, sole and megrim could possibly be increased. It is a different story in area 6A, west of Scotland, and in the Irish Sea, where the Commission proposes that no fishing will take place in 2012. There has been a ban in place for area 6A since 2009 in an attempt to protect cod, haddock and whiting. It has effectively banned the use of most fishing gears in area 6A, with the exception of very specific tall gears only. That has forced small inshore fleets to concentrate solely on crab and lobster, which will in time put those stocks under pressure. This decision did not take into account that the inshore fleet catches little or no cod but it has severely inhibited a fisherman's ability to survive. It places their way of life at risk in coastal communities and particularly in the island communities in Donegal.

Will the Minister seriously examine management arrangements within the six mile limit and use his powers to exert our national control over these areas? That would ensure that small inshore fleets can be sustainable and provide a way of life, as they have done for many years in local communities.

In the proposal it is stated by the Commission that poor data hampers the management of stocks and despite successive cuts in total allowable catches over the years, the stock still appears to be falling in area 6A. For stocks where data is too poor to estimate a size properly, the Commission has applied a so-called precautionary principle, reducing TACs by 25% initially, although this has since been moderated to between 15% and 25% until more reliable data is made available. What steps are being taken to deduce the stock position? Irish fishermen are extremely annoyed that quotas on a range of species, including hake and prawns, are being cut by up to 25% despite the Commission not having sufficient information on their state. The proposals from the European Commission are not based on science but on a policy paper issued by the EU earlier this year indicating that quota proposals would be based on a categorisation which Europe had made. This means that where there is insufficient information, the quotas will be cut severely.

The Commission's stated goal is to set TACs at science-based levels, which help recover stocks and make fisheries sustainable in the long term. Fishermen have always had doubts about the science used and the Minister has recently stated the current fiscal position is placing limitations on the amount of research that can be carried out. How can we have faith in the science as a result? We need a commitment to ensure that adequate research will take place along the west coast. The recent report on the mapping of discards is good and comprehensive but the Marine Institute admits that even with that, only 1% of catches were analysed. It is very difficult to get accurate figures for discards.

The mapping document for discards concluded that approximately 38% of fish caught off the north coast of Ireland is discarded because the fish are too small to sell or banned by the EU from being landed. The Commission wants to ban discards completely by 2015 but this should only be done by introducing technical measures such as selective gear and gear that allows juvenile fish to escape. Areas should be closed effectively at spawning times. Only when such measures are in place can every fish caught be landed. A system that penalises fishermen for landing fish that they do not have a quota for will not work and only a system that allows those fish to be sold and consumed will be effective. Otherwise, discarding will be forced underground and there will be illegal dumping of fish at sea.

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