Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 437: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the scientific justification for the introduction of new rules in respect of KW days at sea regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7637/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The new rules restricting fishing vessels' days at sea in the Irish Sea and the waters to the northwest of Ireland and Scotland have been introduced as part of the EU's revised Cod Recovery Plan. The revised plan was adopted at the EU Fisheries Councils in November and December 2008 and is set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 1342/2008 and Annex IIa of the 2009 TAC and Quota Regulation (EC) No 43/2009. It replaced the original Cod Recovery Plan, which was established in 2004 by Regulation (EC) No 423/2004. Following intensive negotiations, Ireland secured the removal of the cod stock in the Celtic Sea (off the south coast) from the scope of the revised plan.

The original plan was introduced in order to promote the recovery of four cod stocks in Community waters of the north-east Atlantic Ocean. The plan was formulated in response to warnings from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) that these stocks were in decline and were in danger of collapse. For the four stocks, the plan limited fishing effort, set total allowable catches (TACs), restricted mesh sizes, and closed fishing areas with a view to helping the stocks to recover to sustainable levels within a 5-to-10 year period. Unfortunately, scientific assessments have shown that, after four years of application, the conservation measures of the original recovery plan have not reduced fishing mortality to the extent considered necessary for rebuilding the four cod stocks. Scientific advice from the EU's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) found that, of the four cod stocks covered by the plan, only the North Sea stock showed some sign of recovery.

The slow progress made towards achieving the Cod Recovery Plan's goals prompted a revision of the original plan. The EU Commission drew on scientific advice from ICES and the STECF, as well as consultations with stakeholders, including Regional Advisory Councils, to develop the revised plan. This plan replaces the biomass targets of the original plan with new targets expressed as optimum fishing rates which are intended to achieve sustainable catches of cod.

To achieve these optimum fishing rates, the plan has introduced a new system of effort management that sets effort ceilings (expressed in kilowatt-days) for groups of vessels or fleet segments. The management of these ceilings has been devolved to the national level. Member States have received annual allocations of fishing effort for the areas covered by the Plan, which include the Irish Sea (ICES area VIIa) and the waters to the northwest of Ireland and Scotland (ICES area VIa). The effort allocation levels were established by the EU Fisheries Council on the basis of an EU Commission proposal. They were calculated by averaging the fishing activity levels of each Member State in the areas during a reference period of 2004-2006 or 2005-2007 and then reducing that effort by 25%. This methodology means there is now limited fishing effort available for all Community vessels, including Irish vessels, fishing in the designated areas.

Under the plan, each Member State is required to introduce a licensing regime to manage its effort allocations. Any vessel longer than 10 metres overall must have an authorisation from its Member State in order to operate in one of the designated areas using the fishing gears covered by the plan. Member States can decide on the method of allocating their national pools of fishing effort, which are broken down by fishing gear type. Following consultations with representatives of the Irish fishing industry, the Department introduced a pilot system of authorisations and allocations of fishing effort for the period from 1 February to 30 April 2009.

I appreciate that the introduction of these new conservation measures are a challenge and I have established a Steering Group involving the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF), the Department and agencies to provide support to the industry in relation to the practical implementation of these new measures. The effort allocations already made were done on a pilot basis only and I am happy to make amendments where proposed by the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) within the legal framework that has been established.