Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 September 2013
222. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will allow weekly herring quotas for boats under 17m to be landed the following week if they cannot be landed on time for small boats to cope with the possibility of bad weather; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40289/13]
View answerThe current management arrangements in place for this fishery, which were recommended by the Celtic Sea Herring Management Advisory Committee (CSHMAC) do not allow for the carry over of individual vessel allocations from one week to the next. Quota allocations with weekly catch limits will be set following consultation with the CSHMAC for each management period, taking consideration of numbers and size of vessels booked-in. In addition a vessel may choose not to fish in a particular week and this will have no impact on their participation record.
The fishery is divided into two management periods and any unused quota from the first management period will be redistributed in the second management period. Vessels will only have to fish one week of the first management period to qualify for the redistribution in the second period provided they land 50% of their allocation in that week. These arrangements were put in place having regard to the size of the vessels involved in the fishery and the time of year in which the fishing takes place.
