The Registrar General of Fishing Boats, who is an official of my Department, is legally charged with maintaining a Fishing Boat Register and with the proper management of the capacity (i.e. gross tonnes and kilowatts) of Irish sea-fishing boats. He is empowered to enter a sea-fishing boat in the Register or remove it from the Register
Capacity is not an asset owned by the Department or by the Licensing Authority for Sea Fishing Boats. It is a privately owned tradable asset that, with certain exceptions, may be sold, traded or realised as a financial asset on the tonnage market.
Under EU law and National policy, the entry of new capacity into the fleet must be compensated by the previous withdrawal of at least the same amount of capacity whereby licence applicants provide replacement capacity at a ratio of 1:1 under fleet segmentation rules.
In order for capacity to be traded or transferred to a replacement vessel, it must be off-register from a de-registered vessel. Off-register capacity is traded by individuals and companies by way of private contract and the Licensing Authority/Registrar General only has an approval role in this regard. Vessels which are out of commission short-term due to essential maintenance and repairs or due to illness of persons are not required to be de-registered and the capacity of such vessels does not automatically become off-register and is not tradable or transferrable. For the capacity of such vessels to become tradable or transferrable, the only criterion that applies is that vessels must be de-registered and their capacity becomes off-register. Consequently the Registrar General does not maintain or hold information or statistical data on the length of time and reason why boats are out of commission.
The following table contains statistical information on the fleet capacity levels for the years 2007 to 2014.
|
Year
|
Fleet Capacity (i.e. On-Register) 31 December
|
No. Vessels (Excluding Aquaculture Vessels)
|
|
2007
|
66,620 GT
196,888 kW
|
1,903
|
|
2008
|
65,076 GT181,030 KW
|
1,951
|
|
2009
|
63,858 GT181,088 KW
|
2,016
|
|
2010
|
64,581 GT185,392 KW
|
2,046
|
|
2011
|
59,566 GT182,325 KW
|
2,071
|
|
2012
|
60,342 GT186,544 KW
|
2,113
|
|
2013
|
59,515 GT181,641 KW
|
2,050
|
|
2014
|
58,908 GT179,659 KW
|
2,014
|
