Results 20,181-20,200 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: First, the committee has asked me to deal with the reporting requirements of fishing vessels entering Ireland's exclusive fisheries zone. In terms of quotas, all fishing opportunities are set down for member states in the total allowable catch and quota regulation each year. Quotas are not allocated in respect of member states' exclusive fisheries zones, but are instead set out in relation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: What is that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: Sorry, but that is not accurate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: I can provide the information. To be fair, the Deputy may have received that information but I can give him my information in a while. I have much sympathy with what he is saying but it is important for us to be accurate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: It has a quota for nearly 650 tonnes of mackerel.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: I share many of the concerns expressed but it is inaccurate to give the impression that those vessels are operating with impunity. This year, the 58 year old skipper of the Annelies Ilena, formerly the Atlantic Dawn, an Irish boat – let us take a look at ourselves in the mirror also – was fined more than €100,000 in Donegal Circuit Court after being found guilty by a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: I do not know. This is information we have had for a while.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: Yes, or the vessels may have done it before they came here, but the point is that they have paid for swaps and therefore they have a legal entitlement to catch both horse mackerel and some by-catch of mackerel as well. I can only take legal action if someone is breaking the rules and breaking the law. It is a very difficult situation. We are going on the logbook information that we can get...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: No. It would take a lot for us to give away mackerel.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: We can only speculate on that. Swaps take place within the pelagic sector involving mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting or whatever. However, all swaps must be notified to the Commission, so there will be a record of where it got that swap.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: Yes, it can. In the past we have given mackerel for whitefish. The industry has volunteered it. When we were under pressure on whitefish we have traded mackerel.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: My understanding is that it does. However, the Department does not manage enforcement. That is the job of the SFPA. That is how the system is supposed to work. The electronic logbook records what has been caught, its weight and the species, and when it is landed in the port it should match up. That is how it works.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: If there are failures it is up to the SFPA to get through to the member state and get the information to which it is entitled. Obviously there are challenges when there are landings outside the European Union, such as in the Faroe Islands, Norway and so forth. Some of our boats land at the Faroe Islands and in Norway. This is a common issue. We must be careful that we do not point the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: It does that, as far as I know. It has a good relationship with the enforcement agencies in the other member states. The way this should work, technically, is that wherever one fishes, the member state which has responsibility for that zone is there to enforce the rules. The electronic logbook should make available to everybody the information about what boats are catching in terms of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: My understanding is that SFPA is following up with the Danish authorities and the Commission on that issue. There are good reasons why the Minister's office and the Department are not involved in the hands-on enforcement. This is an operational matter. It is a little similar to the case of An Garda Síochána, where the Minister for Justice and Equality does not, and should not,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: That goes on all of the time on the broader policy decisions. That is why we have a new Common Fisheries Policy. What the policy does is to try to ensure that the quotas allocated to member states are what is caught. That is the reason we are dealing with discards as we are and the reason we have a new regional decision making process, which is about policy and examining better methods for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: The group I mentioned earlier, which meets across a number of member states, is trying to improve that enforcement capacity. That is the reason we are talking about observers on vessels and cameras, for the first time. That is certainly not being sought by the industry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: The Dutch are not anti-cameras. It is other member states that do not want cameras. Incidentally, I am not satisfied that cameras will solve the problem.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: The observers are the ones who can-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (8 Dec 2015)

Simon Coveney: That is happening. To be clear, that is now blatantly illegal. Grading is the same as discarding, except it is just mulching the fish.