John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. It is unique to have a Senator responding to Commencement matters.

At the outset, I acknowledge the recent announcement of €3.1 million for Dunmore East Harbour and other marine amenities in Waterford, including piers at Helvick, Tramore, Cheekpoint, Ballinacourty and the slipway at Bunmahon. This level of investment in our marine amenities is greatly welcome and the coastal communities across Waterford will benefit massively from it.

I will proceed to the main premise of my Commencement matter, which is the designation of Dunmore East as an official landing port for UK-registered fishing vessels post Brexit. Following Britain leaving the European Union, only two fishing ports were designated for landings, but last January five ports were added to the list. However, there is no designated landing port from Howth in Dublin to Castletownbere in Cork for UK-registered fishing vessels . This leaves the entire south east coastline without a designated port, which is an anomaly that must be addressed without delay.

This is a matter which I and my Waterford Government colleagues, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, and Deputy Ó Cathasaigh have taken up directly with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, and he is on record as saying that this will be kept under review. While I appreciate that technical and regulatory protocols must be put in place to ensure that third country fishing vessels properly count and document what is landed at Irish ports, I believe this can easily be done as there are fisheries protection officers and facilities already in place at Dunmore East Harbour. I understand that there were only 24 landings over the 2018 and 2019 period but this amounted to 318 tonnes of fish, which had a positive impact on the port and secondary processors in the area.

Given the clear geographic gap between Howth and Castletownbere that I mentioned, I believe Dunmore East would become a popular location for UK-registered fishing vessels to land their catches. One must also consider the environmental impact of fishermen travelling from the south east to Howth and Castletownbere to offload their catches. The strategic location of Dunmore East cannot and should not be ignored. There is no question that opportunities are created and expanded by every fishing vessel that lands at a harbour. I implore the Minister of State to convey what I have said to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and to ask for urgent action on this matter.

Before I conclude, I will briefly mention the farcical situation that now exists at Irish ports across the State following the decision of the European Commission to remove the derogation that existed heretofore on the weighing of fish at factories, due to a three-year-old report which stated that manipulation of the weighing system was taking place. This is a very serious matter which has far-reaching consequences for the fishing sector and calls into question the integrity of every fisherman. That is unacceptable. To my knowledge, no evidence of this practice has been provided, yet the entire industry will suffer as a result. Asking fishermen to take fish out of ice boxes to weigh them at harbour walls in what can often be warm temperatures is nonsensical and will have an impact on costs, time and the freshness of fish. I ask that this is taken up directly with the Commission and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, and that the appropriate reassurances are given to them to reinstate this derogation without delay.