Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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102. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position he will take on setting fishing targets for 2015 at the Council meeting on 15-16 December 2014; his views on the achievement of the maximum sustainable yield exploitation rate in 2015 as outlined in Article 2.2 of Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47596/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In order to inform negotiations at the December Fisheries Council, I have had an assessment of the impacts of the Commission proposal for Total Allowable Catches and quotas for 2015 undertaken. The preparation of a Sea Fisheries Sustainability Impact Assessment is provided for in the Programme for Government. To facilitate and inform these deliberations, an open consultation process was put in place, whereby stakeholders were asked to submit their comments and observations on the Commission proposal for fishing opportunities for 2015. In addition, I convened a meeting of stakeholders on 26 of November which gave a further opportunity to key stakeholders to outline their position on the many aspects of this proposal. In all 5 submissions were received by the closure date. The specific details of the Commission’s proposal and the impact of those for Ireland are available in the document which has been laid before the Dáil and in the accompanying Stock Book, which was prepared by the Marine Institute.

I presented the Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine on 2 December. In essence, I agreed with the sentiment in many of the contributions, which called for greater adherence to the available scientific advice to enable prudent and appropriate management decisions to be taken, allied with a concern about misapplication of some scientific advice. I do not agree with taking an overly narrow interpretation of some of the scientific advice. BIM estimate that if the Commission proposal is implemented without change, it would involve a net 20% cut in quotas for whitefish sector. Cuts to the pelagic stocks (herring, boarfish) are accepted by industry. BIM estimate that the direct value loss of the stocks covered by the SIA would be €31m, of which €18m is for the whitefish and prawn fleet. The indirect loss amounts to €78m with potential impact on jobs of 500 to 600 losses / reduced hours.

I will not support cuts where reliable scientifically vetted additional information is available to inform the decision or where there is a real risk of generating higher discard levels than at present or where the proposal would lead to increased discarding of fish. There is a high cost from a social and economic perspective when quota cuts are proposed and we have to be satisfied that in every case these cuts are justifiable. Fishing ports and communities all around our coast are dependent on fisheries for their very survival.

The Sustainability Impact Assessment was the subject of detailed discussion at the Oireachtas Committee, which will inform my negotiation position at the Fisheries Council. I will work closely with stakeholders and with other EU Ministers on stocks of common interest with a view to delivering quotas that are appropriate taking all concerns into account.

With regard to maximum sustainable yield (MSY), the new Common Fisheries Policy specifically calls for the progressive restoration and maintenance of populations of fish stocks above biomass levels capable of producing MSY. I am committed to the ambitious objective of achieving MSY by 2015 where possible and by 2020 at the latest. As President of the Council during the negotiations it fell to me to broker agreement on this important issue between the co-legislators. In line with the CFP, I consider that for some stocks we will need to phase in delivering MSY if its immediate application seriously jeopardises the social and economic sustainability of the fishing fleet.

I will be doing my utmost at Council to deliver fishing opportunities that balance the needs of coastal communities with the long term sustainability of the stocks upon which they depend.