Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 18 Feb 1992

Vol. 415 No. 8

Written Answers. - Fishing Licence Allocations.

Gerry O'Sullivan

Question:

225 Mr. G. O'Sullivan asked the Minister for the Marine if he will identify the qualifying criteria by which fishing licences are allocated in view of widespread dissatisfaction with the present procedure; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

To enter the Irish commercial fishing fleet, boats must first be licensed under section 222B, as inserted by the Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1983, of the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act, 1959. Applicants must apply for a licence by completing an official application form and forward it to the Department of the Marine for consideration and decision.

The main condition which must be satisfied before a boat may be licensed is that equivalent fishing capacity be first withdrawn from the fleet. Therefore, to bring in a new/second hand boat, a boat or boats, whose tonnage and horse power is/are at least equivalent to the tonnage and horse power of the new/second hand boat, must be removed from the current sea fishing boat register and that tonnage and horse power must be active.

Additional licensing requirements apply to different sections of the fleet and these include,inter alia, the following: (i) where a beam trawler wishes to enter the fleet, this can only be accommodated by the removal of 100 per cent active tonnage and horse power from the beam trawler fleet; (ii) where a refrigerated sea water tank boat wishes to enter the fleet this can only be accommodated by the removal of 100 per cent active tonnage and horse power from the tank boat fleet; (iii) where an applicant wishes to exploit herring and/or mackerel by means of a dry-hold boat over 65 ft. he must first remove from the current sea fishing boat register a boat or boats with an active history of fishing for these species and whose aggregate tonnage and horse power is at least equivalent to the tonnage and horse power of the boat being introduced to the fleet; and (iv) boats lost at sea qualify as replacement tonnage and horse power, provided that the boat in question was on the current sea fishing boat register when lost at sea and would in normal circumstances qualify for replacement purposes.
Applicants must then comply with the following before a licence can issue: (a) if applicants are a body corporate, proof of registration in the companies office must be provided. A copy of the memorandum and articles of association may also be sought before a licence is issued; (b) applicants must supply a condition survey report from a qualified marine surveyor if the boat was built more than ten years prior to the application, to satisfy the Department that the boat is safe and seaworthy; (c) applicants are required to provide evidence that vessels are not eligible for and did not receive a decommissioning grant from another member state; (d) applicants must also demonstrate that the exploitation of the target species by the vessel will be of economic and social benefit to the coastal region to which the quotas concerned are designed to benefit; and (e) the skipper/owner and other crew members must be duly qualified as required under relevant legislation in force.
If an application for a licence is approved, conditions may be inserted in the licence relating to the areas in which the boat is allowed to fish, type of fishing methods allowed and target species the boat may fish.
Notwithstanding the above, a special sea fishing boat licensing scheme was introduced on a once off basis in July 1991, aimed at developing the off shore white fish sector and in particular to fish the unexploited quotas of white fish and prawns off the west and south-west coasts of Ireland. Special suitable conditions and criteria applied to this scheme.
It is aimed, in the coming months, to consolidate, in one document, the various policies and requirements which apply to the licensing of fishing activities.
Top
Share