Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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18. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to implement Recommendation 10 of the Report on Promoting Sustainable Rural Coastal and Island Communities which recommends that the Government examine the feasibility of the issuance of heritage licences to facilitate traditional fishing practices in rural coastal and island communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37713/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I note that the Deputy refers to a report published by the former Joint Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Fisheries in January 2014 which put forward 29 recommendations on a wide range of issues concerning the functions of a number of Government departments and state agencies. The Deputy has drawn specific attention to the recommendation concerning heritage licences for traditional fishing practices in rural coastal and island communities. The intended objective of such heritage licences was, according to the report, to optimally facilitate traditional fishing practices in conjunction with the establishment of a producer organisation representing vessels under a certain length overall in those designated areas.

There have been some important changes in the landscape since this report made its recommendations, and particularly in terms of representation of rural coastal communities in sea-fisheries policy making. The National Inshore Fisheries Forum (NIFF) and Regional Inshore Fisheries Forums (RIFFs) were established in May 2014 and have now been up and running for 2 years. The Forums are consultative structures which provide arenas for inshore fishermen to develop proposals on inshore fisheries management, including compliance and data gathering. The Inshore Forums are representative of the inshore fishing boats, generally less than 12m in overall length and focus on sea-fisheries management in the coastal waters within 6 nautical miles.

To date, from its first meeting in January 2015, the National Inshore Fisheries Forum has met 8 times. These meetings have led to very constructive two-way conversations on issues of mutual concern, industry priorities, emerging policies & initiatives. As a result of the successful discussions with the Forum, NIFF members have been included in a number of sea-fisheries consultative platforms namely: the SFPA Consultative Committee, the Quota Management Advisory Committee, the Bord Bia/BIM market advisory group, the EMFF Operational Programme Monitoring Committee (which oversees implementation of the EMFF in Ireland), the Fisheries Industry Science Partnership (chaired by the Marine Institute) and the Celtic Sea Herring management advisory committee. This gives the inshore sector a role in making recommendations on the allocation of Ireland’s quotas, on market development initiatives, on data collection and scientific research and, perhaps most importantly, on how funding is utilised.

In addition, the NIFF is taking the industry lead in setting priorities for the policy development for the inshore sector and I give consideration to recommendations from the NIFF. In our meetings, we have discussed a whole series of practical things we can do to help the inshore sector, including the development of artisan fisheries, funding for inshore sector projects and management measures for shellfish fisheries, such as the restrictions on recreational potting that were introduced in February.

Recommendations such as those in the former sub-committee’s report regarding heritage licences and producer organisations are matters which the NIFF may wish to consider and, if deemed appropriate, bring forward. Any proposals however must be examined in the context of a discussion with the overall fishing industry and within the framework of the Common Fisheries Policy.