Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

The EU cod recovery plan, Regulation 2342/2008, established a long-term plan for cod stock, covering the setting of total allowable catches, TACs, and quotas each year, and limiting effort in terms of time spent fishing at sea in each area. The areas covered of interest to Ireland are the Irish Sea and area VIa, which is west of Scotland and north-west of Ireland. Under the cod recovery plan, the TAC, quota and fishing effort for cod have been cut each year since 2008.

Under the terms of the 2008 EU regulation, a specified number of days at sea were allocated annually to each member state for specified gear types in the TAC and quota regulation. The effort set to date for 2011 involved a 25% cut on that allocated for the previous year. The regulation, under article 13, permitted the allocation of additional effort for highly selective gear - the Swedish grid, which I am sure my colleague knows about - and cod-avoiding fishing trips.

The EU regulation delegated responsibility to the member state for the implementation of the cod effort allocations. In Ireland, a group comprising industry representatives, the Marine Institute, BIM and the Department made recommendations on the arrangements each year for each area and gear type, which were implemented. The group has been meeting on a regular basis since 2008. In fact, I am sure the former Minister of State was involved in meeting some of those groups.

In area VIa, an area off Greencastle is closed for six months each year to protect juvenile cod under article 13 of the regulation. This closure delivers reduced cod mortality by the Irish fleet each year, and on that basis Ireland claims back effort. In addition, in area VIa we also claim back the full 25% cut applied to all effort in deeper waters, as allowed in the regulation on the basis that cod is not generally found in these deeper waters. In the Irish Sea, we did not introduce specific measures to reduce cod mortality in 2009 or 2010 and accordingly have not been in a position to claim back any of the effort cut each year.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

When all available fishing effort was used up, the general whitefish fishery and the nephrops fishery in the Irish Sea were closed in October, while the gillnet fishery was closed in September. In response to the closure, we introduced a scheme that allowed for a nephrops fishery on the basis that the vessels use a Swedish grid, a highly selective gear, and accordingly reduce the amount of cod in catches to less than 1.5%.

The European Commission introduced a regulation on 23 November 2011 implementing cuts to the allocation of fishing effort to certain member states for 2011. The UK was not accepting of the Commission's assessment of the effort used and the quantity of fishing effort available to it as set down in the regulation. The regulation imposing cuts on effort for 2011 has been repealed by the European Commission. The reason given is that the effort figures will be reviewed with a view to correcting them and that a new regulation will be adopted after that work is done.

I understand there have been substantial discussions between the European Commission and the UK about the implementation of the EU cod recovery plan. This was raised by my Department as a priority issue of concern at a meeting involving the Polish Presidency, the European Commission and departmental officials last Friday, 9 December, in the context of Ireland's having closed fisheries in the Irish Sea in 2011. The Commission officials confirmed that Ireland had implemented the regime correctly in accordance with the provisions of the EU regulation. This will be an important element of the discussions at the Fisheries Council this week, including in the context of the Commission's proposal for a zero TAC for cod in both the Irish Sea and area VIa. I will be carefully monitoring the European Commission's approach to the implementation of effort with a view to ensuring that any agreed approach to the allocation and monitoring of effort is applicable across all member states. In the meantime, further trials are being planned in the Irish Sea this week of the use of more selective fishing gear in our fisheries with a view to being in a position to maximise fishing opportunities while protecting cod stocks in 2012.

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