Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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94. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the total recorded catch for boar fish in 2014; the EU quota allocation to Ireland for boar fish for 2014; and the specific reports or other communications that have been made available to his Department by the Marine Institute regarding the sustainability of this species. [1912/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The figures requested by the Deputy are as follows:

- Total provisional recorded boarfish catch 2014 (by Irish vessels) - 34,621 tonnes; and

- Ireland's Boarfish Quota 2014 - 88,115 tonnes.

The Marine Institute (MI) publishes an annual review of fish stocks of relevance to Ireland along with management advice for the year ahead. This information is contained in ‘The Stock Book’ which is available on the Marine Institutes website at .

With regard to boarfish and the management advice for 2015, the Marine Institute advised that it considered that the long term management plan developed by the Pelagic Advisory Council (a body made up of all relevant EU stakeholders and funded by the EU Commission) should be followed. The difficulty is that this plan has not yet been fully evaluated by ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Seas) and therefore cannot be adopted by the EU. It is ICES advice that underpins the annual total allowable catch (TAC) proposals from the Commission for all stocks.

The MI have advised me that there remain some difficulties in the methodology used to assess the state of the boarfish biomass but that it is hoped that new surveys this year will provide the data that will allow ICES to complete its evaluation of the proposed management plan.

For the moment, boarfish is classed as a ‘data limited stock’ and therefore the Commission proposed a precautionary approach to the TAC for 2015, reducing Ireland’s quota to 36,830 tonnes. I accepted the advice of the Marine Institute and ICES and that of the Pelagic Advisory Council and supported this precautionary quota reduction at the annual December Fisheries Council.