Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his ongoing commitment to the fishing industry, particularly in light of the last capital plan. There was a very welcome announcement for ports such as Castletownbere. I also welcome his ongoing commitment to providing coastal areas throughout the country with capital support, in conjunction with local authorities, to allow for investment in piers and quays along our coastline.

The landing obligation or ban on discards introduced as a result of the new Common Fisheries Policy under Regulation (EU) No. 1380/2013 is a new departure and one that is necessary in light of much media comment and public concern about the requirement for fishing vessels to discard perfectly good dead fish into our oceans because they do not have a quota for them, they are undersized or whatever. Fishermen are simply not able to land perfectly good fish, and there was a political move to do something about it.

Following several years of negotiations and in the lead-up to the adoption of the Common Fisheries Policy, the landing obligation, or ban on discards, was introduced. It has been introduced in pelagic species in the north-western waters of Ireland, Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Pelagic species such as mackerel, herring, horse mackerel, blue whiting, boar fish, smelt, albacore tuna and sprat already come under the landing obligation.

It is no harm to examine how that has worked within the pelagic sector. There have been some hiccups and it has been difficult for skippers and owners to deal with the system, but in the polyvalent sector, demersal fishing will be the real challenge for the Department, the Commission and the fisheries sector. The demersal species include cod, haddock, whiting, saithe, pollock, Norway lobster, nephrops, common sole, plaice and hake.

The discard ban, or landing obligation, is coming into effect on 1 January 2016. There is major concern within the industry. It is my job, as a public representative who hears about this concern on a daily basis in places such as Castletownbere and Union Hall, to address it. There are real issues facing the industry and individual fishermen in dealing with their landing obligations, which they take seriously.

I recognise that the Minister has established a discard ban implementation committee, led by Dr. Noel Cawley. It would be unfair if I did not mention that there is a lot of confusion or a lack of knowledge about how the committee is operating and reporting and what it is considering. Perhaps the producer organisations are dealing with it more intensively. I have spoken to skippers and fishermen who have told me there is a great lack of knowledge as to how the committee is working. Many issues need to be considered, such as quota lists and logging of discards. There are technical issues such as the selectivity of gear. Smaller vessels which have smaller holds may not have room for their legitimate catches if, rather than discarding non-quota species, they have to bring them in. Fish may be landed on quays that may not be as well serviced as fishery harbour centres. What will happen to such fish? There are questions about what happens to undersized fish that are landed. There are many technical questions and it is only reasonable that they be aired in advance of 1 January 2016. I look forward to the Minister's response and an ongoing debate over the next few weeks and months on this issue.

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