Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

There is a story online on theskipper.ie. It is the Bord Iascaigh Mhara, BIM, annual fisheries report and it has caused outrage in the fishing industry because, essentially, the report says it is all fine. It is good; it is all fine. It is data from 2023.

This has to stop. We have to stop denying what is happening. My party conducted a survey late last year of hundreds of fishers and their families. They did not just respond to the survey; they could make some commentary. What was in that report, which I have emailed to the Minister and Minister of State, is absolutely harrowing. It is heartbreaking. People are talking about having fished for generations. It is a tradition and a heritage and it is ending with them. I met fishers, face to face, who were in tears because they were fishing single-handed. There is no future for them and their families.

I am now going to get into the unprecedented crisis we face, an "economic Armageddon", to quote Mr. Brendan Byrne of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, IFPEA. We need to wake up once and for all. The Chinese - the Minister of State is going to China next week - tell us that a crisis is also an opportunity. This is an opportunity for a reset of our whole mentality in Ireland, in the Government, in our Department of the marine, in Bord Iascaigh Mhara, in the SFPA and in every single agency interacting with our fishing communities. There has to be a whole change. It is outrageous that BIM let that report go to print at a time like this. It is outrageous, offensive and unacceptable.

With regard to mackerel, it is a precious resource to our fishing communities. It was an industry that the ingenuity and ambition of our people built up. We built it up. It was a world-class industry we built up here with thousands of jobs created on the back of it. It is a migratory species that spawns off our west coast and works its way up the Atlantic, so it is a shared resource. As we are in the Common Fisheries Policy, our fishers must follow the science. They must follow the advice from ICES every year and quotas are allocated on that basis. That is right - our fishing should be based on science. It should be sustainable and responsible. I absolutely agree with that. The problem is that there are rule breakers and rogues out there who have been utterly reckless and selfish, and they have paid no price whatsoever. I am sad to say they are a country I admire, Norway, another country I admire, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. Complicit in this and supporting them are the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. They are complicit in this practice and they are rewarded. The UK has had its trade and co-operation agreement extended for 12 years. There is no price to pay for this.

When I learned about the absolutely devastating impact of these cuts, which are clearly coming because they are based on science, I asked the question: who benefits from this within the European Union? There are major fishing corporations based in the European Union that invested heavily in the fleets in Iceland and the Faroes. They have been actively involved in this strategic overfishing. They are based in the European Union and I believe they have a huge influence in the European Commission. Ireland has, yet again, been utterly shafted by those at the top of the European Commission. They did it to us in Brexit.

There was no burden sharing. There were just some financial resources, but that was allowed to happen, and here we are again. This has been warned about, and we have been hearing about it, for years. Our producer organisations have been talking about what is coming down the line. Last year, we had a very significant cut in mackerel. This year, what is being suggested is devastating. It is not just mackerel, as the Minister of State knows, but blue whiting and boarfish. This has a knock-on impact on the inshore sector, which needs blue whiting and mackerel for bait. Its prices are going to go through the roof. Remember, the inshore sector is dealing with prices it had 30 years ago for its fish but its costs have increased tenfold. To be clear, it is not just the offshore sector that is impacted by this, but also the inshore sector.

What are we talking about here in terms of impact? I have spoken to the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, which has provided me with its impact assessment. When I go through it, it shows mackerel is important to the producer sector and the factories. It is a huge part of their profits. I have been provided seven examples. Looking through them, the impact of the mackerel cut will be absolutely devastating. We are going to lose hundreds of jobs here, there is no doubt about it. It is not just pelagic, as we know, but also white fish, nephrops and various seas. We are talking about an estimated potential loss of €200 million next year. It is really unprecedented in scale. It is absolutely scandalous that BIM published the report it did today at a time we are dealing with this.

In terms of the organisations dealing with this issue, I have with me submissions from the Irish Fish Producers Organisation, IFPO, and the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, KFO. Obviously, those two groups are particularly impacted by the pelagic cuts. According to the submissions, under the model quota scenarios, up to 837 direct jobs could be affected in some manner in the pelagic catching sector. That is not talking about indirect jobs. That is the threat. When including indirect and induced effects, the potential total impact goes up to 2,361 jobs across the wider seafood economy. That is what we are talking about here.

If we look at the supports needed, we clearly need to see the Hague preferences. That has to happen this time. Burden sharing did not get delivered to our people. We were left carrying the weight of Brexit. The Hague preferences are absolutely essential. They will reduce some of the blow.

It is time for BIM to step up. It has offended the industry unbelievably with the report it has issued. However, it can heal those wounds by doing a strong impact assessment, working directly with the industry on the real figures and the real data in the here and now. It needs to do an impact assessment looking at all the scenarios - short, medium and long term - in terms of what supports are needed. We are going to need financial supports. I am glad the Minister of State said it. When we talk to any fishers, they say they want to fish. They want fish. That is what I want. Right now, though, we have to deal with the reality. Of course we need to bring in the Hague preferences. Of course we need to see a review of the Common Fisheries Policy. Of course we need justice. Of course the huge factory ships hoovering up the fish and the industrialisation of fishing has to end. In the here and now, though, we are going to need financial supports to save our industry and save as many jobs as possible. That means emergency short-term financial support. In terms of the quota management and licensing, we need reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. All of that has to be looked at.

I defer to my colleague, Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher, who was a Minister of State with huge experience. I agree with everything he said about the need to talk to everybody. We need to tell our story. Our fellow member states need to understand the injustice the Irish people have suffered under the Common Fisheries Policy. I am sorry to say that Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands, the Russian Federation - there are huge sanctions in place against that last anyway - and the UK have in this case been rogue players in overfishing mackerel. They need to accept that this is utterly wrong. They need to stop the overfishing and there needs to be a real approach from Europe in terms of justice for our people. We are a small country and we deserve that support right now. I trust the Minister of State will engage strongly on that. We need to have very strong representation in Europe. In terms of our permanent representation and the Department of the marine, we need to up our game on. I proposed a fish Ireland" office, where the industry and our Department would be hand in hand, permanently based in Europe, promoting our seafood industry. That needs to be looked at right now and how we can turn this around and turn a crisis into an opportunity.

I want to talk about the issue of third-country vessels from Norway and Iceland. It is very clear to me that if they refuse to act responsibly and do what is right for all of us with the mackerel resources, they should not be allowed to fish blue whiting in our waters. It is utterly offensive. Any country that is not being responsible and not behaving right should not be rewarded. Clearly, that needs to be dealt with. There needs to be proper control of those vessels.

In my remaining minutes, I want to talk about the inshore sector and the islands sector. They cannot be forgotten about. The inshore sector is looking for financial supports for their fishers. If we look at the farmers, they have always, and rightly, had financial supports under the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, because they could not live on what they earn from the produce. Similarly, we recently had a basic income support for the artistic community. I welcome that, too. We need to see proper financial supports for inshore fishers. They are fishing single-handedly and putting themselves in real danger, so they need supports. In terms of the islands, we need to look at Article 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy. We need fairness for our island communities and fairness for our inshore communities as part of this overall process. I will continue on this matter another day.

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