Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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168. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of fishing boats that transferred tonnage to other boats in each of the years 2007 to 2014 while they were out of commission due to essential maintenance and repairs or due to illness of persons; the length of time each boat was out of commission; the reason the boat was out of commission; the fishing sector tonnage that was transferred in, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48464/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Registrar General of Fishing Boats, who is an official of my Department, is legally charged with maintaining a Fishing Boat Register and with the proper management of the capacity (i.e. gross tonnes and kilowatts) of Irish sea-fishing boats. He is empowered to enter a sea-fishing boat in the Register or remove it from the Register 

Capacity is not an asset owned by the Department or by the Licensing Authority for Sea Fishing Boats. It is a privately owned tradable asset that, with certain exceptions, may be sold, traded or realised as a financial asset on the tonnage market.

Under EU law and National policy, the entry of new capacity into the fleet must be compensated by the previous withdrawal of at least the same amount of capacity whereby licence applicants provide replacement capacity at a ratio of 1:1 under fleet segmentation rules.

In order for capacity to be traded or transferred to a replacement vessel, it must be off-register from a de-registered vessel. Off-register capacity is traded by individuals and companies by way of private contract and the Licensing Authority/Registrar General only has an approval role in this regard. Vessels which are out of commission short-term due to essential maintenance and repairs or due to illness of persons are not required to be de-registered and the capacity of such vessels does not automatically become off-register and is not tradable or transferrable. For the capacity of such vessels to become tradable or transferrable, the only criterion that applies is that vessels must be de-registered and their capacity becomes off-register. Consequently the Registrar General does not maintain or hold information or statistical data on the length of time and reason why boats are out of commission.

The following table contains statistical information on the fleet capacity levels for the years 2007 to 2014.