Results 22,301-22,320 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

White Paper on Defence: Statements (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: They are not being driven out.

White Paper on Defence: Statements (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: That is what we have done.

White Paper on Defence: Statements (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: For the record, the Minister for Defence currently has the marine portfolio.

White Paper on Defence: Statements (30 Jun 2015)

Simon Coveney: I am pleased to be in the House to discuss the forthcoming White Paper on defence prior to its finalisation and submission to Government. I hope this will happen in two weeks' time. First, I wish to congratulate Rear Admiral Mark Mellett, whose name was approved by Cabinet today to go for approval to the President to be the next Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces from the end of...

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 wish the joint committee a good afternoon and thank the members for the invitation to update them on the progress of the implementation of the landing obligation and to discuss the submission from the fleet sub-segmentation lobby group on abolishing the sub-segmentation of tonnage and kilowatts for the Irish fleet. I will begin by addressing the issue of fleet segmentation. The...

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: A number of speakers raised the issue of the 2011 case. Let me be clear that it was on the basis of a High Court order, following a court case. Legally, we were required to act and we did. That was not a voluntary intervention by the Minister for an individual case. There was a High Court judgment, a court order, which was clear and we simply implemented 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: I am trying to recall the exact wording. The court order was that there was a requirement on the State to put the person back into the position he was in back in 2007. The only way we could do that was the way in which we did it. I would caution against using that as a precedent. There were specific circumstances involved, in respect of which we can provide members with the details, if...

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 may be safety issues but there is also the temptation to catch more fish out of quota.

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 know. They are asking for extra capacity. Do they want bigger boats to catch the same amount of fish?

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: With respect, safety is one consideration.

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 have multiple roles. The record of this Government with respect to safety, particularly the money and resources put into it and the changes made, has been fairly strong. I am glad to say we have had some positive results. Although there have been some tragedies in the past two years, there has been a big improvement on previous years. I take safety very seriously. I have personal 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: It is moving from whitefish to pelagic. They are two totally different segments.

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...