Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Not at all. I am delighted to get the opportunity to raise this Commencement matter, which relates to the Celtic Sea herring quota distribution. This quota distribution comes from the pelagic allocation to Ireland and the pelagic management comes under eight principal management stocks, of which the Celtic Sea herring is one.Under the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006, the Minister has the power to make legal instruments, such as fishery management notices on the opening and closing of a season or the provisional extension of a season where there are extenuating circumstances, as in this case where the herring allocation for the Celtic Sea went unused in late 2015 due to the terrible weather that hit Ireland, particularly in the Minister of State's neck of the woods in Wexford and Waterford, particularly the Waterford estuary. This is an issue which a colleague of mine, Councillor Eddie Mulligan, has pursued for some time and he has made specific recommendations to the Minister. Former Deputy John Brown and Deputy Mary Butler have pursued this also, as have others.

What is required is flexibility. The herring quota available in the Celtic Sea is ring-fenced per annum at approximately 1,700 tonnes. Last December, 1,000 tonnes of this allocation to Ireland went unused in this particular area. The reason was the detrimental weather. What was sought at the time was to carry forward at least some of the tonnage for vessels with a proven track record even though this is not a requirement of the quota allocation for extending the quota into the following year. Unfortunately this did not happen and therefore fishing activity this year is eating into this year's quota and not the surplus quota from last year.

I seek to ascertain whether there is a willingness to examine this and provide a ministerial direction to carry forward quota into next year. Traditionally the pelagic herring quota is fished in the autumn or spring, but given that last autumn was so bad the same could happen this year. If this were to happen the quota would go unused also. This would be to the detriment of Irish fishermen in general, particularly in this region given the situation last year. This is something that could happen in the other eight areas under the pelagic management quota model, but this is the case I am raising today. I hope the Minister of State has some good news for me.