Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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823. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason he has not taken on board requests from an organisation (details supplied) to present a socio-economic assessment of fishing opportunities for 2021 which takes into account both the medium to long-term economic benefits resulting from managing stocks at or below their maximum sustainable yield and the economic risk associated with ignoring scientific advice resulting in the collapse of fish stocks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41573/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Fishing opportunities are agreed on an annual basis in the EU Fisheries Council of Ministers on the basis of a proposal produced by the European Commission.  In order to examine the implications for Ireland, a Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) of the proposal is conducted and brought before the Dáil before fisheries negotiations commence.

The SIA draws its conclusions from a consultation process with all major stakeholders, a public consultation and expert contributions from the Marine Institute (MI) and Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM).  The objective of the SIA is to look at the overall impacts the proposal could have on the sustainability of the fishing sector from a biological, economic and social perspective.

The MI carries out a biological assessment of the Commission's proposal including a breakdown of stocks that are fished sustainably, overfished and stocks with unknown status.  The percentage of stocks of interest to Ireland which are being fished sustainably has increased from 34% in 2013 to 45% in 2020.

BIM advises on the economic effects of the proposal and, in turn, the potential effects it can have on employment and coastal communities.  The assessment examines the monetary value of the possible increases and decreases from the previous year's national quota for each stock and estimates the potential effects of the proposal; either through reduced incomes, partial lay-offs or redundancies, or a combination of these.

The purpose of the current socioeconomic assessment carried out by BIM is to evaluate the short to medium term impacts of the European Commission's proposal for Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas. The methodology utilized in this assessment has undergone a peer-review process.

The European Commission's proposal is informed by the scientific advice on the various fish stocks published by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which advises the catches that can be taken for a given stock at the level of maximum sustainable yield (MSY).  Fishing at MSY for a given fish stock means the highest possible annual catch that can be sustained over time, by keeping that stock at the level producing maximum growth.

The outputs from an assessment that predicted over and beyond the European Commission’s proposal, while technically possible, would be extremely difficult given the inherent complexities involved. Modelling mixed fisheries involving multiple species and different fleets from Member States, as pertain in the waters around Ireland, all being fished at MSY would be challenging and highly uncertain.  MSY estimates are not static in time. Achieving single species MSY in complex and dynamic fisheries targeting multiple species is challenging because achieving the objective for one species may mean missing the objective for another. MSY is rarely, if ever, attainable simultaneously for all species. Therefore, a predictions model based on all stocks being fished at MSY is likely to be unrealistic and potentially misleading, containing such degrees of uncertainty as to make them unusable in policy making.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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824. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if it will be ensured that the 2018 commitments to ensure that effective bycatch reduction plans are developed which will progressively restore stocks that are subject to bycatch TACs will be delivered; if all fisheries which require bycatch TAC s will be subject to full catch documentation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41574/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There are certain stocks for which ICES (the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas) has issued scientific advice for no catches.  The Landing Obligation requires that if these stocks are caught, even as a by-catch, they must be landed.  These stocks in the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea and the north-west occur as by-catches in our mixed whitefish fisheries therefore, if a zero Total Allowable Catch (TAC) were set, this would lead to the closure of the entire fisheries.

Last year, in order to reduce catches of depleted stocks in mixed fisheries, the Council agreed to set restrictive Total Allowable Catches (TACs) to allow for unavoidable by-catches of these stocks.  In order to reduce the catches of stocks for which by-catch TACs were set,  the TACs for the other stocks in the fisheries in which these vulnerable stocks are caught were set at levels that help the biomass of the vulnerable stocks recover to sustainable levels.  In addition, these measures were complemented by the adoption of remedial technical measures in the Celtic Sea and the continuation of such measures in the Irish sea and the north-west.    

The European Commission has proposed amendments to the EU Fisheries control framework.   Negotiations on the new Fisheries Control Regulation are currently ongoing in both the EU Council and the European Parliament.  Some of the measures being considered include provisions for full catch documentation, such as Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) which involves, for example the use of CCTV cameras on vessels.  Ireland is supportive of the proposed introduction of a risk-based REM system.  As a Coastal Member State, Ireland supports this proposal provided that Coastal States have access to the data gathered within this system on a near real time basis to support the work of the control authorities.