John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Question 72: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in view of the fact that long term sustainability of the mackerel fishery is seriously jeopardised by the actions of Iceland and the Faeroe Islands who together have unilaterally increased their share of north east Atlantic catches from 4.6% in 2005 to 45.9% of the scientifically advised fishing opportunities for this stock in 2011, in defiance of all agreed management arrangements, if he will confirm that the interests of Irish mackerel fishermen will not be sacrificed by conceding either quota or access to EU waters for countries which have shown such flagrant disregard for the sustainability of a fishery vital to our interests; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39112/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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A third round of Coastal States negotiations on mackerel arrangements for 2012 is currently underway at the Department's offices in Clonakilty. The meeting involves the European Commission, Polish Presidency of the European Council and a range of interested Member States including Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Poland, Germany and of course Ireland. It will also involve large delegations from Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Russia (as observers).

The meeting will try to bring a resolution to a long standing disagreement on the management of this highly important stock. Numerous attempts by the EU and Norway over the last number of years to bring Iceland and the Faroe islands into a fair and sustainable management framework for mackerel have failed.

Iceland , for the last three years and the Faroe Islands for the last two, have been operating unilaterally and their fishing levels, which will come to over 300,000 tonnes this year, are completely unsustainable and outside of normal internationally recognised management protocols.

The migration pattern and overall spacial distribution of mackerel over the past number of years has resulted in more mackerel being found in Icelandic and Faroese waters than before. There is no disputing the case for additional shares for both Iceland and the Faroe Islands the big issue from my perspective is their inflated and unjustifiable demands for high shares of the stock.

There will be four key components of any likely deal, namely, the TAC level, access arrangements, percentage shares and the duration of any agreement. There will have to be trade offs and compromises made in order to achieve a long term resolution.

A continuation of the current impasse will ultimately result in a depletion of the mackerel stock with resultant negative impacts for our fleet and the processors who depend on their catch.

Mackerel is also Ireland's most important fishery economically and while I am hopeful an agreement can be reached, I will not support it at any price. Any package must be fair and proportionate taking into account the track record of the fishery of the EU and Norwegian fleet and its migration patters mainly within EU and Norwegian waters. I will not support a compromise that makes available to either Iceland or the Faroes a too high a share of the stock. These are critical issues for the Irish fishing industry and I will be closely monitoring progress at the discussions this week in order to protect the interests of the Irish industry.