Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 December 2018
199. Deputy Pat The Cope Gallagher asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the way in which he plans to prevent the closure of all other fisheries in view of the zero TAC that has been advised for cod and whiting in area 6A and the fact that the landing obligation is coming into effect from 1 January 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52446/18]
View answerWhile there was a zero TAC advice from ICES for cod and whiting in Area 6a, that is not the proposal on the table from the Commission. The Commission has proposed a “Union TAC” for these two stocks - 1461 tonnes for cod and 937 tonnes for whiting. These TAC's are intended to cover by catches in targeted fisheries only and no directed fishing for these two species would be allowed. The Commission's rationale for setting a limited TAC is to support targeted fisheries and avoid closure arising from insufficient quota for unavoidable by catches of cod and whiting. I fully support this rationale.
I do not support, however, the proposal that Member States will not receive their quota shares for these two stocks, and three others of relevance to Ireland, in the normal way (relative stability shares). I am very concerned about this potential aspect of the Commission proposal as it is likely to create more issues than it solves. Ireland is working closely with other relevant Member Sates to provide that a TAC is set and allocated in accordance with relative stability. Our objective is that key commercial fisheries are not closed early due to a 'choke' situation.
