I propose to take Questions Nos. 88, 89 and 90 together.
The Island Fisheries (Heritage Licence) Bill 2017 to which the Deputy refers is a Private Members’ Bill first introduced to the Dáil in 2017. It seeks to create a specific system for licensing island fishers to conduct small-scale coastal fishing activities, and the Bill would provide regulatory powers for this purpose.
While communications between my Department and the Attorney General on this matter are confidential and subject to legal privilege, I can confirm that the Attorney General is comprehensively of the view that the Bill is not compatible with EU regulations supporting the Common Fisheries Policy and the national implementing legislation which gives effect to those provisions. This includes the Bill’s incompatibility with the national EU-compliant licensing system for sea-fishing as well as obligatory national quota management, amongst other legal difficulties.
I wish to reassure the Deputy that I recognise the value and importance of maintaining vibrant island and rural sea-fishing communities. I must state that the current sea-fishing boat licensing legislation and procedures already allow residents of Ireland's offshore islands to enter the fishing fleet in the same manner as any other applicant.
In Ireland, fishing quotas are a public resource and are managed to ensure that property rights are not granted to individual operators. The majority of fishing vessels based on our islands are smaller sea-fishing boats which predominately fish inside six nautical miles of the shore for non-quota stocks such as lobster and crab. Quotas for fish stocks are available to small-scale coastal fishers who are licensed to fish for quota stocks such as mackerel and herring, with allocations made available in accordance with Ministerial policy, in order to support smaller vessels.
Consultation on the management of quotas is carried out at the Quota Management Advisory Committee (QMAC) monthly meetings, which involves fishing industry representatives. Smaller vessels are represented by the National Inshore Fisheries Forum (NIFF) on the QMAC, and I formally recognised the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation (IIMRO) and the National Inshore Fishermen’s Association (NIFA) as EU Producer Organisations in recent years and appointed both to the QMAC to further advocate on behalf of all small-scale fishers and to influence how Ireland's fish quotas are made available within national policy.
There have been other significant developments since the inception of the Bill in 2017. For instance, I established the Seafood Task Force to analyse in depth the impacts of the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) for the fishing and seafood industries as well as coastal and island communities. The Report of the Seafood Task Force – Navigating Change was published in October 2021 and recommended 16 Brexit support schemes with a cost of €423m. In terms of supports for small-scale and inshore fishers, I launched the Brexit Inshore Fisheries Business Model Adjustment Scheme in 2022. The scheme provided payments to inshore fishers to adapt their business operations to the post-Brexit environment. I opened the scheme again in 2023, with a new suite of training modules and payments matching the first scheme.
The Seafood Task Force also recommended a community-led Local Development Scheme and based on this proposal, I launched the Brexit Blue Economy Enterprise Development Scheme. This is implemented through seven Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) in order to support entrepreneurial activities in coastal areas and includes upskilling and training. In addition supports such as grant aid, training and on the ground facilitation is provided by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) to the FLAGs under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and a similar programme will be put in place for the FLAGs under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) in the coming months.
I will continue to work in supporting the small-scale fishing sector and to help ensure that sustainable, economic livelihoods are available to those fishing around our coast and residing on our offshore islands.
