Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 July 2006
100 Mr. Gogarty asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources his views on the judgement of the European Court of First Instance against the European Commission over its refusal to allow 20 Irish fishing vessels to increase the size of their vessels; and the implication of the Court’s ruling for the €21 million in penalties levied on six of the vessel owners by the Government for exceeding their tonnage. [26596/06]
View answerThe EU Regulations covering fleet policy for the period up to the end of 2001 provide that an increase in the capacity of a sea fishing boat could be allowed where the capacity increase results exclusively from safety improvements and does not increase the fishing effort of the vessel concerned. The EU Regulation provides that the decision, in respect of each application, must be made by the EU Commission on a case by case basis. A number of owners of Irish fishing vessels made applications to the EU Commission to have "safety tonnage" granted in respect of their vessels. In April 2003 a Commission decision (No 245/2003) determined the amounts of "safety tonnage" granted based on the applications made to the EU Commission. Many of the applications made by Irish vessel owners were rejected.
23 owners of Irish fishing vessels, whose applications were rejected, challenged the Commission Decision. The State supported the case made by the vessel owners in the Court. The European Court of Justice in its judgment has annulled the Commission Decision 245 / 2003 in so far as it applies to 20 applicants who appealed.
I have been advised by the Attorney General that, as a result of the Court judgment, the options open to the EU Commission would appear to be as follows: the Commission may now undertake a "case by case" assessment of the applications to determine if they meet the requirements of the EU Regulation or it may lodge an appeal to the Court of Justice.
It should be noted that the State has adhered to its obligations and was not a party to the error made by the Commission in dealing with the applications. The national fleet policy requires that vessel owners remove 100% replacement capacity when introducing a fishing boat into the Irish fleet. In the event that a vessel owner wished to introduce a fishing vessel, in respect of which an application for "safety tonnage" was made to the EU Commission, any allocation of tonnage granted subsequently was allocated to the recipients who were able to use or trade that capacity which is a valuable tradeable commodity.
Seven fishing vessels in the RSW Pelagic Segment of the fleet were permitted to introduce larger vessels without the provision of the necessary 100% replacement capacity on the basis that the relevant capacity was not readily available on the market and applications were being made to the EU Commission for "safety tonnage" in respect of the increased capacity involved. Following the Commission Decision of 245/2003, the Minister introduced a policy (Fleet Policy Directive 2/2003) that required these vessel owners remove equivalent replacement capacity from the whitefish fleet. This Ministerial Policy provided for equality of treatment for all vessels within the fleet whereby all vessels must provide 100% replacement capacity "up-front". Any additional capacity granted to these vessel owners following a revised Commission decision on "Safety Tonnage" will be allocated to them on the same basis as that allocated to the rest of the fleet.
