Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I continue to work on the commitment set out in the programme for Government to:

Ensure that inshore waters continue to be protected for smaller fishing vessels and recreational fishers and that pair trawling will be prohibited inside the six-mile limit.

That is a programme for Government commitment on which I am determined to follow through.

As the Deputy said, in December 2018 the then Minister, Deputy Creed, announced that vessels over 18 m would be excluded from trawling in inshore waters inside the 6-nautical-mile zone from 1 January 2020. There was a transition period of three years for vessels over 18 m targeting sprat to allow adjustment for those who had previously been carrying out that fishing activity. A policy directive was then issued by the Minister to the independent licensing authority to give effect to those measures.

I am committed to the sustainability of fishing in Irish waters and the exclusion of vessels over 18 m from trawling in waters inside the 6-nautical-mile zone. As the Deputy will know, in respect of the decision to exclude vessels over 18 m from inside the six-nautical-mile zone, a court case, involving legal proceedings to the High Court, was taken by two applicant fishermen. That challenge was upheld by the judge, who held in summary that the court's final order should be, among other matters, a declaration that policy directive 1 of 2019 was made in breach of fair procedures and is void. I appealed that decision to the Court of Appeal and we received the unapproved judgment in July of last year, and only on 10 March past we got the final judgment.

What is happening now is that my team is assessing the outcome and the full details of that final judgment. It is a programme for Government commitment to exclude larger vessels from inside the 6-nautical-mile zone, and that is something I will now step out. I could not do anything about it until 10 March, when we got the final judgment back. Were we to reinstate that now, the required legal process would have to be gone through to take it forward again.

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