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

I did not get a chance to mention the discards issue for next year. We are about to change fundamentally the way in which we fish, for the better. This was negotiated, I am glad to say, by Ireland during the Irish Presidency in a new Common Fisheries Policy. We are introducing, from 1 January, which is in a few weeks, an obligation to land all pelagic fish. This time next year, we will be introducing the obligation to land for the whitefish sector. We need to work and are working with the industry to bring that about because it will be good news for everybody. It means we will not be dumping hundreds of thousands of dead fish into the sea because fishermen do not have a quota to land them in port. That will be history, I am glad to say. We are figuring out a practical way of making progress on the discards ban at present.

On the swap issue, every year we swap with other countries, including Belgium, and particularly France because it has a lot of quota. We decide on the fish that are valuable to our industry in respect of which we need to get a larger quota and what fish we could swap that are of less value to our industry in order to get those valuable stocks. I assure the Deputy that we get something back every time we swap. In general, we get back something more valuable to our industry than what we are giving. Swapping occurs all the time. We have a very good relationship with France and Belgium. They are seeking extra quota for flatfish, in particular, and we may well be looking for more prawns or other whitefish. We negotiate this with the industry and do not make a unilateral decision in the Department to swap. We ask fishermen and the fishing industry representatives what they are looking for and where the pressure points are and we swap accordingly.

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