asked the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry the efforts he is making to protect the interests of Irish fishermen in the negotiations which are taking place for the enlargement of the Community.
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Protection of Fishermen's Interests.
11.
I am continuing to work closely with my colleague, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is handling the Irish input to these negotiations to ensure that the position adopted by the Community in the negotiations is satisfactory from our point of view and protects Irish interests.
Will the Minister give the House some indication of his policy in regard to the activities of Spanish fishermen and what is likely to happen in regard to our exclusive areas if Spain joins the Community?
Negotiations in relation to the accession of Spain and Portugal by their nature have to be confidential. The Deputy can take it that the preservation of our position vis-à-vis the Community, and in particular the enlarged Community when it comes about, will be protected. I should like to tell the Deputy that already we have publicly made our position clear in regard to Portugal. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Barry, made it clear about six weeks ago at a meeting in Brussels.
Is the Minister aware that up to 100 Spanish fishing vessels are fishing illegally inside the Irish 200-mile limit for prawns on the Porcupine Bank? Will he take that into consideration when the enlargement of the Community is being negotiated to protect the interests of Irish fishermen? What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that this illegal fishing stops? It is well known that the Spanish are offering a decoy in that when Irish naval vessels appear in the area one or two Spanish vessels are arrested and the other 90 can carry on fishing illegally. They are making life very dangerous for our fishermen.
The Naval Service are aware of the decoys and ploys being adopted by some of the boats when carrying on illegal fishing. As the House is aware a number of boats operate under licence west of Ireland but I am convinced that there are a number of boats illegally fishing there. We have quite a good record in apprehending those boats and I should like to express my thanks to the Naval Service who work under fairly severe conditions, on their track record which is a very good track record.
We all congratulate the Naval Service for doing such good work with limited resources. Will the Minister agree that they are not equipped to handle the amount of illegal poaching being carried on continuously by Spanish fishing vessels in our waters?
The question deals with EEC negotiations.
The nations concerned are applying to join the Community but they are breaking all the rules in regard to fishing.
That is another day's work.
The time has come to introduce some type of positive licensing system under which each nation will be allowed a certain number of boats inside the limits. Will the Minister accept that in the event of any boat which holds a licence breaking the regulations they should not be allowed to fish in those areas in the future? This is the system operated in Iceland. Some positive decision of this kind must be taken in order to conserve our stocks.
There is a licensing system in operation in respect of Spanish boats west of this country. Boats normally apprehended for illegal fishing are non-licence holders. All these matters will be considered in detail in the context of the Spanish accession. It may well be that this kind of approach would be best but I am not prepared to say at this stage.
Would the Minister make available information on the Spanish vessels licensed to fish prawn in the Porcupine? Irish fishermen have to deal with these poachers every day of the week and their lives are being put in danger since the Spanish vessels are usually larger and pay little heed to the smaller Irish vessels. Many ugly incidents have happened in recent weeks.
This is a question on EEC negotiations and we seem to have drifted into the implementation of decisions which may arise out of these negotiations. That is another question.
Could I have an answer?
The Chair will not allow me to answer.
Certainly the Chair cannot be accused of restricting Question Time but he wants to avoid a drift into a general discussion on every question. That is what is happening.
This is a very serious issue.
The very thing the Chair is complaining of is going on in relation to every Department.
We are talking about protecting the interests of Irish fishermen and all the supplementary questions have been directed towards this point.
The question is about protecting the interests of Irish fishermen in negotiations. Presumably the negotiations will end up with certain quotas and areas being defined.
I can readily appreciate the secrecy of the negotiations and the Minister's difficulty. Nevertheless, there is well-informed speculation that we are doing pretty badly. People in the industry seem to be aware of the way the negotiations are progressing and they are totally dissatisfied with the way in which the issues have been faced up to at Community level. They feel that things are not going favourably for us. Once the negotiations are concluded very little can be done and we want to impress upon the Minister the seriousness of the situation and the danger to the Irish fishing industry if there is a widespread invasion of our traditional fishing grounds by Spanish boats when Spain joins the Community. What attitude is the Minister adopting to ensure that this will not happen?
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, who has been speaking on behalf of this country, is very aggressive in his attitude. He is in consultation with us.
He is a landlubber.
I did not know that Blackrock in Cork was a thousand miles from the sea.
What is the Minister's involvement in the negotiations?
The Deputy must understand that there are certain formulae which are used in negotiations for accession. The Foreign Ministers normally handle such negotiations. I am in constant touch with my colleague and he comes back to me regularly if he is in doubt about anything relating to fisheries. He is dealing with a wide variety of issues in relation to accession.
Are there fishery advisers with him?
They are available to him at all times.
Are they with him at the negotiations?
Yes.