Results 18,581-18,600 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: Perhaps I could clarify that case before members comment on it. It might be helpful. To be clear, in the light of the High Court opinion, the exceptional circumstances of the case and on receipt of legal advice, the Minister was agreeable to put the individual concerned back into his 2007 position in order to give his boat the mackerel and herring track record that would currently be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: All I can clarify is that we got legal advice at the time and were able to do what we did in a manner consistent with the High Court opinion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: It is described here as a High Court opinion. I can supply the parliamentary question on it to the committee, so it has the detail of that High Court-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: We can get into a legal discussion here. Our understanding is that the High Court opinion was that this person should have been put into the position in which they would have been if they had been licensed in 2007.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: The legal advice was that what we did to correct that situation was legally sound.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: This carries some weight with me. The suggestion that we are just ignoring this is incorrect. There is also an onus on the people who are putting forward this proposal to get some consensus in the industry. This is a proposal from 18 boat owners. Let me pose one or two questions that have not been asked, which I am surprised about. If we make more capacity available for the pelagic fleet,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: I raise that question in the context of making more capacity available. For example, should the RSW fleet be allowed to increase its capacity?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: There are multiple issues that are consequential on this decision. I am not saying we cannot deal with these; I am just saying there is a sole focus today on the points that have been made by 18 boat owners who came in and made a presentation to the committee primarily to do with safety. There is nothing stopping somebody from replacing a wooden boat with a steel boat of roughly similar...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: If one is replacing an old wooden vessel with a modern steel hull, the hull shape will have moved on. The boat will be a different shape for a start, and the same capacity can be obtained with a narrower hull. Primarily, what people would like here - I can understand why they are looking for it - is to build bigger boats that have the capacity to catch more fish but that are also safer and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: What point is the Senator raising?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: We can get into the architecture of fishing boats if the Chairman wants-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: -----but, ultimately, people want to build bigger boats. That is what the Chairman is saying. People want to build bigger boats because they are saying they are safer, and they probably are safer, but on that basis we would be allowing the whitefish capacity to be bought up and used to build bigger boats for the pelagic segment. We do not have more quota in the pelagic segment, so we would...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: I will happily look at this, and we will go through a consultation process if the group of people who are looking for this change can at least convince some of the producer organisations, who are there to represent the industry and its interests, that this is worth serious consideration, and if we can get some traction from other stakeholders in the industry. That is not an unreasonable...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: The Deputy asked that question already and I said I would do it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: If Deputy Ó Cuív is saying the reason no PO is supporting this is that they are all internally conflicted, that is the point I am making. There is more than one view here. The Deputy is only representing one view, which I find extraordinary. On the actual views within POs across the country which have concerns in relation to this and which will have some members that support it,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: There is an opportunity to create artisan products from a pelagic fishery, such as lime mackerel, which the craft he is concerned about may find relevant. The Marine Survey Office may have issues in regard to safety but that is ultimately the responsibility of boat owners. One cannot have a situation where somebody comes to me and asks for more capacity because the Marine Survey Office,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: It should be. It starts in July and essentially we will have people on boats so that when the fishermen hit problems with the obligation to land fish they will measure how it impacts on quota, particularly in mixed fisheries.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: The Marine Institute would have observers on boats, working with fishermen to try to understand the practical complexities of the obligation to land. There will be practical complexities. I refer to the Celtic Sea, which is often used as an example because it is a good one, where fishermen are catching cod, haddock and whiting. Whiting is separate as it is a slightly different shape from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: Policing that will be a challenge, of course. It was really important for the fishing industry that there was a de minimis figure because there needs to be a release valve. When one uses all the management tools that are available in terms of cross-species quota management, inter annual quota management and all the options of technical conservation measures are exhausted, it is important...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Landing Obligation Update and Fishing Fleet Management: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: Let us be honest. The producer organisations are cautious about this because they know it will be difficult to implement. They will have to push their members, which I hope they do. The alternative is much worse. The idea that we would not try to implement this directive and that it would become an enforcement issue for the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority - that is not a route we want...