John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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452. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he has taken, if any, to promote the transfer of the total allowable catch between member states; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53148/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Each year a number of swaps of fishing quotas and effort are arranged with other Member States. Swaps are normally initially proposed or organised by the fishing industry lead by the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) and completed in a transaction between Member States. This may happen for a number of reasons. Firstly at the start of each year when the TAC and Quota Regulation is published, quotas for a number of fisheries which are of little interest to the Irish fleet are swapped for quotas for stocks which are of interest to our fleet.

Secondly throughout the year, the industry lead by the FIF works closely with the Department to recommend to me effective monthly management regimes for pressure stocks. In this monthly process the Industry recommends that some quotas or effort be swapped in order to maintain a supply of a particular quota for a stock of particular importance to the Irish fleet. In addition, where such proposals are received from other Member States, the FIF recommends the amounts and species to be swapped. These swaps are completed by the Department using the EU FIDES fishery database system.

The third reason for swaps is at the end of year where a quota has been exceeded and any opportunity to address this overfishing is used through completing swops with other Member States.