Dinny McGinley
Question:165 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for the Marine if a system will be arranged whereby surplus of premium white fish could be purchased for human consumption rather then being used in the processing of animal feed.
Written Answers. - Fish Withdrawals Scheme.
The purpose of the European Community's fish withdrawals scheme is to support the market for fish when demand is low. Each year the Commission, in consultation with the member states, fixes withdrawal prices for the species covered by the scheme. Once the market price for a species falls to be the level of the withdrawal price fish is withdrawn and compensation is paid to fishermen. A feature of the withdrawals scheme is the requirement that withdrawn fish must be disposed of in such a way that it does not interfere with the normal marketing of the species in question. One of the ways in which withdrawn fish may be disposed of is by distributing it free of charge for charitable purposes. Nevertheless, because of the unpredictable nature of withdrawals and the requirement that such fish should be distributed in its natural state, it has not proved practical to dispose of withdrawn fish in this way. In these circumstances withdrawn fish is either used as fishmeal, animal feed or is dumped.