Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I strongly support the inshore sector. It is important and needs support, which is why I announced yesterday a new scheme that will deliver between €2,700 and €4,000 to all inshore boats this year to help to underpin income and to reflect how the Government values the sector and wants to support it in terms of income and some of the challenges it is experiencing.

Regarding the Deputy's question around quotas, fishing quotas are a public resource in this country and are managed to ensure property rights are not granted to individual operators and they remain a national resource. When a quota allocation is not fished by an individual operator, it is returned to the State for redistribution to the fleet. This is important to ensure that quotas are not concentrated in the hands of large fishing companies whose owners have the financial means to buy up such rights, which would happen in that circumstance. This approach helps to support a fishing fleet based around our coastline and a fleet made up of various sizes and types of fishing vessels. Any movement towards privatisation of fishing rights would seriously risk fishing vessels, losing an economic link with our coastal communities. I work closely with the fishing industry to ensure that does not happen.

At national level, stakeholders play an important role in fish quota management through the quota management advisory committee, which is a consultative committee that meets monthly. It involves my Department and, importantly, all fishing industry representatives from the catching, inshore and processing sectors. The purpose of the committee is to make recommendations to me for particular stocks. I follow these recommendations for regimes for those stocks, subject to the proper management and rational exploitation of our fisheries in line with national policy. The committee examines the operation of each fishery's uptake patterns and available quota for the different groups of fishing vessels. Discussions on any allocations take into account the divergent situation of the fleet and the market and any weather conditions upcoming that could impact vessels.

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