Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Under the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, non-EU vessels are precluded from fishing in the waters around Ireland up to the 200-mile limit, other than under an EU agreement. For example, limited access is provided for Norwegian and Faroese fishing vessels under reciprocal access agreements. The Russian and Icelandic vessels referred to by the Deputy are not allowed to fish inside the waters of the Irish 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone or any waters of the European Union.

Waters outside the 200-mile exclusive economic zone are considered to be the high seas and are open to all under international law, subject to certain regional management regimes between coastal states, for example, the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, NEAFC. Up until our accession to the then European Economic Community, EEC, and our declaration of the 200 nautical mile exclusive fisheries zone in the 1970s, factory ships from Russia and other countries were a common sight just 12 miles off our shore. At that time, the waters outside the 12-mile zone were high seas and we had no legal means of restricting the activity of those large ships. Our membership of the EU and the CFP ensured that we were able to put in place a strong policy and legal framework to manage fishing sustainably. This provides protection such that vessels from third countries such as Russia and Iceland have no access to our 200-mile zone. Our waters and their fishing resources are protected from any reoccurrence of the effective free-for-all which existed prior to our accession and the establishment of the CFP.

Fishing access to the Irish exclusive economic zone is strictly controlled and monitored by the Naval Service and the SFPA in co-operation with our EU partners. At a wider EU level, there is limited fishing access granted to some non-EU countries, including Norway, as part of reciprocal fishing agreements but no such arrangements exist in respect of fishing vessels from either the Russian Federation or Iceland. Vessels from all countries are free to use our port facilities in cases of force majeureand normal freedom of navigation rules apply.

As the Deputy may be aware from media reports, a Russian vessel is currently in Castletownbere for repairs. I have been informed that this particular vessel, while operating outside our exclusive zone, reported a damaged propeller and was towed to the south side of Bere Island by another Russian trawler, where tug boats brought it into the bay. The vessel is under the supervision of personnel of the Marine Survey Office pending completion of repairs to free the propeller and follow-up procedures and it is expected that this work will take some time.

I wish to refer briefly to the issue of factory ships more generally. Quota in Ireland are a public asset and are not privately owned. Had we privatised that asset many years ago, we would have far fewer trawlers now and the smaller number of vessels would be large factory ships. We decided to keep the quota as a public asset and to allocate it on the basis of fishing effort on an annual basis. Others have chosen an entirely different approach and they have fewer and larger boats or factory ships. Those factory ships, insofar as they are under the flag of EU member states, operate under the CFP and fish under the quota regimes of that policy which are negotiated on an annual basis. While I appreciate that there are emotive arguments around factory ships, which are large, they fish only in accordance with CFP rules and regulations and quotas allocated to them.

Icelandic and Russian vessels have no legal entitlement to fish within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone. That zone is a creation of our membership of the EU and the CFP.

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