Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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46. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to address the scientific mistakes made by the European Commission in its allocation of mackerel TAC for 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12196/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The 2017 TAC for this shared stock was agreed by the Coastal States (EU, Norway, Faeroes, Iceland) on the basis of the scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). At the December Agrifish Council, the Coastal State agreed TAC was confirmed by Ministers and the internal EU allocation agreed in accordance with the longstanding relative stability rules. This has now been given legal effect in Council Regulation (EU) 2017/127 of 20 January 2017.

The one aspect that has changed since then is that ICES has issued revised advice for the stock for 2017 and I assume that this is what the Deputy is referring to. Due to an overestimation of the stock size during the assessment phase, ICES has stated that its TAC advice for Mackerel is now 857,185 tonnes as opposed to 944,302 tonnes in its original advice - a 9% reduction in the advice. It is important to note that the Coastal States set the 2017 TAC at 1,020,996 tonnes in line with the agreed Long Term Management Plan. As such, there were no mistakes in how the allocation of the mackerel Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for 2017 was made.

The revised ICES advice was issued on 26 January 2017.

As the mackerel stock is subject to the Coastal States process, the way that 2017 TAC would be changed is, if there were agreement in the first instance at Coastal States level. In that situation it is likely that the AgriFish Council would amend the current EU Regulation. If an adjustment to the TAC, based on the new advice, were to be agreed and given legal effect, the increase for Ireland in 2017 would amount to 2,627 tonnes instead of 10,589 tonnes.

I have not received any indication from the Commission that any adjustment to the TAC is being actively considered, notwithstanding the revised ICES advice, given the practicalities and the situation that most Coastal Sates have already made their allocations to operators for 2017. The revised estimation of the overall stock size will play a part in determining the advice for 2018.