John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Question 4: To ask the Minister for Agriculture; Food and the Marine in the context of having a level playing field in the implementation of EU law, the severe hardship forced upon Irish fishermen due to having no access at present for whitefish trawlers and gillnetters and only very limited access for prawn trawlers if he intends to proceed immediately to re-open the Irish sea demersal fisheries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40088/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The EU cod recovery plan, Regulation 2342/2008, established a long-term plan for cod stock, covering the setting of total allowable catches, TACs, and quotas each year, and limiting effort in terms of time spent fishing at sea in each area. The areas covered of interest to Ireland are the Irish Sea and area VIa, which is west of Scotland and north-west of Ireland. Under the cod recovery plan, the TAC, quota and fishing effort for cod have been cut each year since 2008.

Under the terms of the 2008 EU regulation, a specified number of days at sea were allocated annually to each member state for specified gear types in the TAC and quota regulation. The effort set to date for 2011 involved a 25% cut on that allocated for the previous year. The regulation, under article 13, permitted the allocation of additional effort for highly selective gear - the Swedish grid, which I am sure my colleague knows about - and cod-avoiding fishing trips.

The EU regulation delegated responsibility to the member state for the implementation of the cod effort allocations. In Ireland, a group comprising industry representatives, the Marine Institute, BIM and the Department made recommendations on the arrangements each year for each area and gear type, which were implemented. The group has been meeting on a regular basis since 2008. In fact, I am sure the former Minister of State was involved in meeting some of those groups.

In area VIa, an area off Greencastle is closed for six months each year to protect juvenile cod under article 13 of the regulation. This closure delivers reduced cod mortality by the Irish fleet each year, and on that basis Ireland claims back effort. In addition, in area VIa we also claim back the full 25% cut applied to all effort in deeper waters, as allowed in the regulation on the basis that cod is not generally found in these deeper waters. In the Irish Sea, we did not introduce specific measures to reduce cod mortality in 2009 or 2010 and accordingly have not been in a position to claim back any of the effort cut each year.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

When all available fishing effort was used up, the general whitefish fishery and the nephrops fishery in the Irish Sea were closed in October, while the gillnet fishery was closed in September. In response to the closure, we introduced a scheme that allowed for a nephrops fishery on the basis that the vessels use a Swedish grid, a highly selective gear, and accordingly reduce the amount of cod in catches to less than 1.5%.

The European Commission introduced a regulation on 23 November 2011 implementing cuts to the allocation of fishing effort to certain member states for 2011. The UK was not accepting of the Commission's assessment of the effort used and the quantity of fishing effort available to it as set down in the regulation. The regulation imposing cuts on effort for 2011 has been repealed by the European Commission. The reason given is that the effort figures will be reviewed with a view to correcting them and that a new regulation will be adopted after that work is done.

I understand there have been substantial discussions between the European Commission and the UK about the implementation of the EU cod recovery plan. This was raised by my Department as a priority issue of concern at a meeting involving the Polish Presidency, the European Commission and departmental officials last Friday, 9 December, in the context of Ireland's having closed fisheries in the Irish Sea in 2011. The Commission officials confirmed that Ireland had implemented the regime correctly in accordance with the provisions of the EU regulation. This will be an important element of the discussions at the Fisheries Council this week, including in the context of the Commission's proposal for a zero TAC for cod in both the Irish Sea and area VIa. I will be carefully monitoring the European Commission's approach to the implementation of effort with a view to ensuring that any agreed approach to the allocation and monitoring of effort is applicable across all member states. In the meantime, further trials are being planned in the Irish Sea this week of the use of more selective fishing gear in our fisheries with a view to being in a position to maximise fishing opportunities while protecting cod stocks in 2012.

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his reply, but I am sure he is aware that fishermen are concerned that other countries, notably the UK, are using completely different means of operating the cod recovery programme. That, in effect, means their fishermen are continuing to fish in the Irish Sea while Irish vessels are confined to port. They feel this is totally unfair. How can the Minister justify not allowing Irish fishermen to fish while the British have got around the regulations by using a different system?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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British boats may be fishing, but they have not fully got around the system yet. What has happened here is that the European Commission introduced a regulation on 23 November implementing cuts to the allocation of fishing effort to certain member states, and the UK has not accepted the Commission's assessment of fishing effort used and the quantity of effort available as set down in that regulation. As a result of an ongoing negotiation between the Commission and the UK, that regulation has been withdrawn for the moment while it is reviewed. That review is under way and it will have consequences next year. We are going into important negotiations from tomorrow in the December Council that will probably go on until Saturday. We have met our commitments and have received recognition of that from the Commission in terms of our obligations in the Irish Sea prawn fishery.

Last week, we raised the issue of the treatment of the UK directly with the Commission. The one thing upon which I will insist at the Council this week is that Irish boats get the same treatment as British boats in terms of the limitations in the Irish Sea, even though there is a mismatch at the moment because the review is ongoing.

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I wish the Minister well in his discussions over the next few days. While he is in Brussels, is he prepared to meet with the Irish fishery people to discuss this issue? I am sure he will have meetings with them to discuss the suggested cuts. They are concerned that the playing field is no longer level because of the way the British are now allowed to operate.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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For the record, I already met with industry representatives on this issue either last week or at the end of the previous week - I cannot remember - and we went through the issues in detail in preparation for the Council meeting this week. They know my views on this and they know I am not happy about it. We cannot have different treatment for different countries in the same waters. However, Britain is a key ally for us this week in some of the deals we need to get done, so over the next three days we need to balance our ability to get a good deal for Irish fishermen, across all species, with the need to raise a significant red flag on this issue to ensure our fleet does not get different treatment from any other fleet just because it can apply more political pressure. It is a question of boxing clever politically so that the TAC negotiations, as well as this issue, are resolved satisfactorily.