asked the Minister for the Marine the action he intends taking to encourage more fish landing in Irish ports; and if he is disturbed by recent trends where Irish fishing vessels are landing fish in European ports.
Written Answers. - Fish Landings.
5.
At the outset let me stress that there are no powers available to me to require boats to land fish in Irish ports or to discriminate in favour of boats landing in Ireland. Where boats land depends primarily on economic factors and in particular, steaming times between the fishing grounds and ports and the prices available in different ports. Other significant factors are the social and community ties in fishing communities and the longer term interest of fishing communities in an integrated industry.
The vast bulk of the Irish catch is in fact landed in Irish ports reflecting the fact that the main catching opportunities occur close to Irish ports, the competitiveness of the Irish onshore sector, and the other factors mentioned above.
The recent trends referred to by the Deputy presumably relate to mackerel landings by Irish vessels into British and European ports. This is of course, not a new trend. For example, over 30,000 tonnes of mackerel were landed by Irish boats outside of Ireland in 1985. This compares with around 22,000 tonnes last year. A large proportion of landings in the early weeks of this year have been abroad. However, this essentially reflects an apparent shift in the migrating pattern of the western stock mackerel which is now tending to stay longer in distant northern waters and within considerably shorter steaming times of non-Irish ports. This problem should ease over the next few weeks as the migrating fish come closer to our shores. I am very mindful of the supply needs of the Irish processing sector. In my view it is also in the long term interests of the Irish catching sector to support the development of Irish processors. These needs figure prominently in all our dealings with the interests involved and in our policies for the development of the catching sector, the management of fisheries and for the building up of a competitive processing sector which will ultimately be an important factor in the prosperity of Irish fishermen.