Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1043. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the share of fishing quota allocated to the Norwegian fishing fleet from the Irish EEZ; the breakdown by State of the quota of cod recently allocated to EU member states from Norwegian waters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11173/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The 1980 Agreement covers the North Sea, Skagerrak and the North East Atlantic, and allows for the setting of total allowable catches for joint stocks, transfers of fishing possibilities, joint technical measures and issues relating to control and enforcement.

The main issue of concern for Ireland in the annual consultations relates to transfers of the Blue Whiting stock in Western Waters. The Blue Whiting Stock is not allocated by EEZ but, as with other stocks, is set out according to ICES Management Areas. The transfer of Blue Whiting to Norway is a long-standing feature of the EU/Norway agreement, as it is used within the agreement as a “currency” in the negotiations to pay for Arcto-Norwegian cod in the Barents Sea which the EU receives from Norway under an agreement reached as part of Norway's accession to the EEA. In recent years, the transfer of Blue Whiting from the EU to Norway was 99,000 tonnes. With the UK's departure, the equivalent would be 73,000 tonnes. However, Ireland is working to keep the transfer of Blue Whiting as low as possible.

The EU-Norway consultations normally take place in November, in advance of December Fisheries Council, but had to be delayed last year as the EU-UK future relationship negotiations were ongoing at the time.

As a consequence of the UK's withdrawal from the EU, the UK is now an independent Coastal State. Therefore, in addition to the bilateral EU-Norway consultations, trilateral consultations between the EU, Norway and the UK are also taking place to cover stocks shared by the three parties.

The majority of stocks and fisheries which had been covered bilaterally under EU-Norway, now come under trilateral EU-Norway-UK joint management. Therefore, the EU-Norway consultations will focus on access to waters, exchange of fishing opportunities (including the fishing opportunties for Arctic-Norwegian Cod in Norwegian waters) and setting Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for a limited number of stocks in the Skagerrak.

These consultations are still ongoing therefore, the Agreed Record for the 2021 fishing arrangements or exchange of fishing opportunities (including Arctic Cod) have not yet been finalised.

However, the Agreed Record of EU-Norway fisheries arrangements for 2020 is available on the European Commission's website from the following link:

Norway does not have access to fish in Ireland's EEZ south of 56^o30’.

The allocation of Arctic-Norwegian cod in Norwegian waters of ICES areas 1 and 2 in 2020 was as follows:-