Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
1178. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of boats recommended by his Department for permission to fish for prawns in the revised list sought by the EU for this purpose, by port of origin; the total number of Irish registered boats that traditionally fished for prawns in UK waters, broken down on the same basis; the method by which they were selected; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1568/21]
View answerWithin the terms of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and UK, access arrangements are set out in Article 8. This Article sets out: provided that TACs have been agreed, each Party shall grant vessels of the other Party access to fish in its waters in the relevant ICES sub-areas that year. Access shall be granted at a level and on conditions determined in those annual consultations. In relation to the main access arrangements, the Agreement also provides that the outcome of the consultations should normally result in each Party granting:
(a) access to fish stocks listed in the Annex to the Agreement - these are the stocks that are shared between the EU and UK subject to at a level that is reasonably commensurate with the parties respective shares of the TACs;
(b) access to fish non- quota stocks in each others EEZ's at a level that at least equates to the average tonnage fished by that Party in the waters of the other Party during the period 2012-2016; and
(c) access to waters of the Parties between 6 and 12nm in ICES divisions 4c (southern North Sea and 7d-g (English Channel, south-west coast of England and part of south - east coast of Ireland) to the extent that Union fishing vessels and UK fishing vessels had access to these waters on 31 December 2020.
I have asked my Department to work to ensure that fishing vessels which traditionally fished in UK waters will be granted such access by the UK authorities.
While authorisation for access for all licensed and registered fishing vessels has been sought from the UK authorities, at this time approval has been granted to tranches of fishing vessels which have been identified as requiring such access.
The UK Authorities authorised access on a staged basis initially on 31 December for 141 vessels which were identified, in consultation with the Producer Organisations, taking into account vessels that were most likely to fish in the first week of January. The vessels were identified in the days before the end of the year taking into account the Department's understanding of the fisheries and in consultation with the four Producer Organisations (Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, Irish Fish Producers Organisation, Irish South & East Fish Producers Organisation and the Irish South & West Fish Producers Organisation).
In relation to vessels targeting mackerel in the RSW Pelagic segment and in the Polyvalent segment, these were specifically identified because mackerel is fished only in UK waters at the start of the year. In addition for the first tranche of 141 vessels, I understand that the POs identified vessels in their organisations which they were aware of as likely to fish in the start of the year in UK waters.
A breakdown of the 141 vessels by Port of Registration as registered under the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894 to 2005 by the Department of Transport is provided in the following table (not within parentheses).
Furthermore, all vessels in the polyvalent segment may fish for a demersal quota stock and for any pelagic stock for which an authorisation for the fishery has been issued. There are 118 polyvalent vessels included in the list of 141 vessels. All of these 118 vessels can, therefore, fish for prawns under a catch limit set by the Minister. A breakdown of the 118 polyvalent vessels by Port of Registration as registered under the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894 to 2005 by the Department of Transport is provided in the table within parentheses.
|
Port of Registration - Name |
Number |
|
Cork |
8 (8) |
|
Dublin |
11 (4) |
|
Drogheda |
28 (28) |
|
Galway |
9 (6) |
|
Skibbereen |
33 (31) |
|
Sligo |
20 (9) |
|
Tralee |
4 (4) |
|
Waterford |
4 (4) |
|
Wexford |
24 (24) |
The Department has requested from the SFPA a list of vessels showing activity consistent with fishing in the UK EFZ in calendar years 2019 and 2020. The response from the SFPA indicates of the order of 149 polyvalent vessels had activity consistent with fishing in UK EFZ in calendar years 2019 or 2020. All vessels in the polyvalent segment may fish for a demersal quota stock and for any pelagic stock for which an authorisation for the fishery has been issued. All of these 149 vessels could, therefore, have fished for prawns under a catch limit set by the Minister in 2019 or 2020. The SFPA has indicated there are other vessels that require further investigation that may be added at a later date. A breakdown of these 149 polyvalent vessels by Port of Registration as registered under the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894 to 2005 by the Department of Transport is provided in the following table.
|
Port of Registration - Name |
Number |
|
Cork |
7 |
|
Dublin |
8 |
|
Drogheda |
32 |
|
Galway |
11 |
|
Skibbereen |
36 |
|
Sligo |
18 |
|
Tralee |
4 |
|
Waterford |
7 |
|
Wexford |
26 |
Since the 31st December 2020, two further lists of Irish vessels have been sent to the Commission to request authorisation, by the UK authorities, for these vessels to fish in the 12- 200 nm UK EEZ based on licence holders who contacted the Department seeking such access and those that had fished in UK waters in 2019 or 2020 based on relevant records. The list of vessels should ensure that vessels which fished for nephrops in UK waters have already been granted an authorisation or are included in the list for an authorisation submitted to the UK authorities, other than small vessels which are currently under consideration.
A further 48 vessels have now been authorised by the UK authorities and the Department has been advised by the Commission that the second list of 20 vessels has already been transmitted to the UK authorities and is hoping to hear shortly regarding the status of this request. The Department is considering how smaller fishing vessels that do not have a Vessel Monitoring System to record activity maybe appropriately identified and will be consulting the National Inshore Fisheries Forum in that regard.
