Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, in respect of discards, I do not accept this is not implementable. One reason this took so long to negotiate was we were obliged to figure out a way to end discards and to introduce an obligation to land, with some exceptions, while at the same time doing so in a way that could allow fishermen on the deck of a trawler to deliver that change and reform. Management tools have been introduced to allow them to do this. For example, the proposal allows for interspecies flexibility in terms of quota management and for inter-annual flexibility for fishermen in respect of quota management. Moreover, allowances will be made for fishermen to make the case that if they cannot avoid the catching of adult fish in a mixed fishery after they have used technical conservation measures such as mesh size, escape hatches or whatever and they have used the other flexibilities that allow them to have quota flexibility between species and between years, they will have what is called a de minimis rate of discarding allowed, of up to 5% for the fleet. Consequently, there are practical measures that the fishing industry was very much involved in influencing, talking about, designing and so on. I do not accept that point and would not have signed up to the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, reform if I thought this was not implementable. The other point is this proposal does not begin until 2016. There is plenty of time to prepare for that and to design an implementation plan to ensure it works.

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