Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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421. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he has received correspondence from a fisherman's organisation (details supplied) in County Donegal concerning permissible total allowable catch quotas for herring for the fishery in 2015; his plans to facilitate the association's historic fishing practices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37570/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of correspondence on this issue sent directly to officials of my Department on 14 October. A reply issued on 30 October . On the overall issue I am very much aware of the problems surrounding the herring fishery off Donegal. The unfortunate facts are that the total allowable catch (TAC) for herring in the waters off Donegal (part of Area VIa South), as advised by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) for 2015, is zero. Consequently, Ireland therefore has no fishing opportunities for herring in the area for 2015. This applies to all vessels and all fishing methods. At last December’s Fisheries Council I secured a commitment from the Commission to urgently review this situation on foot of new scientific advice that was expected in April of this year. A new benchmarking exercise was undertaken by ICES but unfortunately the outcome was to confirm their advice that there should be a zero TAC for 2015. In light of this review the Commission confirmed that it could not support any in year amendment of the herring quota.

With regard to the future of this stock, ICES strongly recommend, and I fully support, a re-building plan for the stock.  This is also the view of the Pelagic Advisory Council, in which Irish industry representatives are very active, and I will be supporting them in their endeavours on this matter. Any rebuilding plan recommended to the Commission would need to be evaluated and approved by ICES and it may not be possible to have this for a number of months given the complexities involved. The ICES advice, in the absence of a rebuilding plan for 2016 is again for a zero TAC. Consequently, the focus now must be on developing that rebuilding plan so that a viable and sustainable fishery can be re-established as quickly as possible.  In the context of the 2016 TAC and quota negotiations in December, I will be working closely with industry to examine all possible options, taking account of the current ICES advice, including a case for a small TAC that would support scientific work on the stock.