Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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30. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will make the lobster V notching programme mandatory for all vessels fishing lobster around the coast; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43009/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The primary intention of the lobster V-notch programme is to improve the sustainability of Ireland's lobster stocks by protecting female lobsters so that they can breed a number of times and contribute to sustained stock levels. Following extensive consultation with the fishing industry, in May this year I announced enhancement to the lobster v-notching programme which is operated by BIM with voluntary participation from fishermen. The programme now offers increased grant aid of up to 75% for fishermen who present live lobsters for v-notching and return them live to sea. Since the announcement in May BIM has seen an upsurge in participation in the Programme and expect that year-end figures for 2014 will be double those of 2013. To put numbers on that, BIM expect the scheme to pay out €220,000 directly to fishermen for conserving over 25 tonnes of lobster or roughly 20,000 individuals.

During the consultation exercise my Department carried out on lobster management in 2013, there were many calls out of the 250 plus responses for mandatory v-notching but little consensus on how it should be applied. In view of the significant improvement in participation rates through incentive I am not persuaded that compulsory measures are required. That said, in May I also announced the establishment of the National Inshore Fisheries Forum based on a network of regional forums to give inshore fishermen and their communities a direct voice in this kind of policy issue. The first Regional Inshore Fisheries Forum meetings have taken place and I look forward to meeting their representatives at the National Inshore Fisheries Forum at the start of December. I firmly believe that marine stakeholders themselves have the knowledge and expertise to contribute to sustainable long term plans from conception through to implementation and I hope the Forums will harness these qualities for the betterment of the inshore sector.