Dáil debates

Thursday, 21 November 2019

Report on Island Fisheries (Heritage Licence) Bill 2017: Motion

 

6:10 pm

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

I welcome all the contributions. I wish to make just a few observations in response to points that have been raised.

Deputy Kenny in his concluding remarks and, I think, Deputy Penrose laid the blame in a way on bureaucracy. The line Deputy Penrose used was that our job was to "find a way". From the engagement I have had with all the officials in my Department, I believe there is an absolute commitment and an ongoing endeavour to maximise the opportunities for the smaller players in the fishing industry. The evidence for this is there from both them and my own commitment in this regard.

Initially, all my engagement with the fishing industry was with the established producer organisations. Deputy Pringle will be very familiar with them as among the most powerful of them is in his own back yard. In fairness, one of the last acts of my predecessor was to establish the NIFF and the RIFFs - the National Inshore Fisheries Forum and the various regional fora that feed into it. Participants in the regional fora are the island people. As a consequence of the voice they have been given, they now sit around the table as equal partners. That is as it should be because in numerical terms, in terms of boats on the water, they are far more significant, but in terms of the economic opportunities that were available to them they are minuscule in comparison with the larger established producer organisations. I accept that both have a legitimacy, make a living in a difficult environment and operate within pretty well-established circumstances, regulations, laws, directives, the Common Fisheries Policy and so on. There is absolutely a willingness on the part of the officialdom with which I have engaged in my Department, personally and with my predecessor to maximise the opportunity.

Deputy Pringle knows that the NIFF and the RIFFs represent - if the House will pardon the pun - a sea change in terms of the voice that sector now has. Following public consultation, which some in this Chamber strongly resisted, this has given rise to a significant increase in opportunities for the smaller fishermen, including island communities, on a par with other smaller fishermen in the inshore sector. They now have a multiple, financially and in terms of fishing opportunity, of what they previously had. In overall terms the figure is an increase of 62% in the opportunity they now have because of the decision taken to exclude the large boats from the inshore sector. That, by any stretch of the imagination, is really significant in both volume and value terms. If the House wants further evidence of commitment, I refer to the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, EMFF, and the fisheries local action groups, FLAGs, which are the marine and coastal community equivalent of the LEADER groups. They are delivering significant financial opportunities and assistance to the inshore sector and to the island communities. There is also the scheme of assistance operated through BIM for smaller fishermen to invest in their own storage capacity, gear, etc. That is targeted at supporting the smaller sector. There have therefore been a range of initiatives, which I believe have stemmed from the fact that the inshore sector, through the NIFF, is now an equal partner.

7 o’clock

I really do not want to get into the points made by Deputy Lawless about being sold out in 1973 except to say that our industry today is multiples of the size of the industry that existed in the 1970s before we joined the European Union. In fact, in the context of Brexit, there are serious challenges for the fishing industry but one of the benefits of being a member of the European Union is the access to other waters that we now have. In the pelagic sector, 60% of the opportunities we have are in UK territorial waters. One of the benefits of being a member of the EU is that the Common Fisheries Policy provides access to community waters. Almost 40% of our second most valuable stock comes from UK waters and while that is a serious challenge, it also reflects the fact that the EU gave us opportunities. Our industry, prior to joining the European Union, was largely an inshore industry.

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