I had intended to give some time to Deputy Taylor-Quinn who had expressed an interest in this matter. If the Deputy comes into the House during my time I should like to give her a few minutes, if that is agreed.
Adjournment Debate. - Offshore Fishing Licences.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
In the event of the Deputy failing to appear I shall continue to entertain the House.
I am glad of the opportunity to raise this matter and I should like to express my appreciation to the Minister for the Marine for being present in the House this evening. Basically I am seeking clarification in relation to a matter which I and the offshore fishermen consider to be one of urgency. As I understand it, the delay in issuing offshore fishing licences has placed many fishermen in serious difficulties. The Department of the Marine have all the information and facts and basically these fishermen are only awaiting a decision from them.
A number of licences must be issued by the Department for increased boat sizes. I understand — the Minister can either confirm or deny this — that because of the size of our fishing fleet, we were not in a position during the last fishing season to take up our full quota in a number of areas. In the Porcupine, I understand we fished under quota up to 800 tonnes of prawns to the value of £2.5 million, and that we fished under quota up to 21,000 tonnes of white fish, whiting and monk fish to the value of between £6 million and £7 million.
I have been led to believe that if we increase the size, length and tonnage of our boats we will have a better chance of competing and filling our quotas, thus enabling our fishermen to get on with their business. Perhaps the Minister will indicate to the House the total number of applications which have been submitted to his Department. I do not envy the Minister his job in issuing those licences: it would appear far more applications for licences have been submitted than the number of licences at the Minister's disposal. Perhaps the Minister can give us some indication of the number of applications and the number of licences he intends to issue.
I am particularly concerned about the fishermen who heretofore were using boats up to 50-60 ft. in length and who, because of the opportunities which exist in regard to the under fished aspects of our quota, now intend buying 90-100 ft. boats which cost in the region of £200,000. The applications submitted by these fishermen should already have received approval from the Minister. A number of these fishermen have been fishing for many years and are legitimate applicants for these licences. I am at a loss to understand why the Department — perhaps the Minister can clarify this point — are not in a position to issue licences to these applicants. A number of people in the Kerry area who have been involved in the fishing industry for 20 to 30 years regard this as an opportunity to become more competitive and increase their boat size. I believe there is ample scope for up to 30 extra boats of 90-100 ft. in length.
I am at a loss to understand why the Minister, who has the ultimate responsibility, has not made a decision to award these licences. I understand why there could be difficulties in relation to some of the applicants who are perhaps trying to get into this area for the first time and who regard this as an opportunity to do so — there may be some difficulties in the Department about their trustworthiness and ability to become full-time fishermen — but I appeal to the Minister to make a decision in relation to those genuine fishermen who have been fishing for a number of years and who have made a straight application to bring in larger boats.
I am glad of the opportunity to bring this matter to the attention of the House because some of these people will be in severe financial difficulties if their applications are not accepted by the Department. These people have deposits of £40,000 and upwards paid on boats and their livelihoods are being put in jeopardy because of the failure of the Department to make a decision on their applications. I understand the closing date for applications was 31 December 1989. I ask the Minister to explain to the House why decisions have not been made. I have tried to raise this matter at various times but unfortunately I have received no satisfactory answers. I appeal to the Minister to indicate to the House as to when a decision will be made. Too many people are waiting for a decision whose livelihoods are in jeopardy. The Minister should make this decision as quickly as possible.
I should like to thank Deputy Spring for sharing his time with me. This very important issue has been on the agenda of the Department of the Marine for quite some time. On various occasions during Question Time and on the Order of Business I have sought clarification on this matter but without success to date.
It has been established that about 300 applicants are awaiting the issue of licences and that a committee has been set up to examine these applications. However, nothing more is clear. What is happening on the ground is quite serious. A number of people in the fishing industry want to change their boats and in some instances, to increase the length and tonnage of them. I know a fisherman who wants to reduce the tonnage of his boat but the licence has not been transferred from one boat to another. When I tabled a Parliamentary Question on this matter I was told it was being reviewed by the committee. I believe the consideration of such an application should be straightforward, particularly as the applicant already has a licence which he merely wants to transfer to another boat and reduce his tonnage. I do not understand why there could be a difficulty with the issue of a licence in this case.
A year and a half ago the Government announced the creation of 4,400 jobs in the fishing industry. Yet those people who want to create a livelihood in fishing are not afforded the opportunity to do so. I refer in particular to young applicants who are applying for a licence to get into the fishing industry. For these people, particularly in the rural coastal regions, it is one of the few areas where they can make a living because industry is slow to come to these areas and jobs are difficult to secure. They have been hoping for an opportunity in this area but to date, despite many promises by the Minister, his predecessor and the Taoiseach, they have been unable to do so.
There is total chaos in issuing fishing boat licences. There is a stalemate. We are told it depends on the GRT and that we have been told by the EC Commission to reduce our GRT, everything seems to centre on this. I would ask the Minister tonight to take the opportunity to clarify once and for all whether he and his Department will be in a position this year to issue fishing boat licences or do we have to reduce our tonnage substantially before any new licences can issue to the fishing industry. It is a straightforward situation but to the people who are suffering severe hardship as a result of this indecision it is not so clear. They are not in a position to plan. Those who have put deposits on boats are now in serious financial difficulty and are under-increasing pressure to get rid of the boats because they are not in a position to use them.
I hesitate to interrupt the Deputy but the time available to her is well nigh exhausted.
I appeal to the Minister, once and for all, to clarify the position for the benefit of those people who have a stake in this.
I am pleased to have the opportunity to make quite clear what the situation is in regard to boat licences. In dealing with this question it is, I feel, essential to remind Deputies of the overall framework within which the future issue of sea fishing boat licences must be handled.
First, it has to be recognised that there are segments of our fishing fleet where there is clear over-capacity. To allow uncontrolled access into these segments would simply undermine the viability of existing fishermen and add to the already severe pressures on scarce fish stocks. Future licensing policy must, therefore, take cognisance of this situation in the interests of the industry as a whole. As Deputies will be aware, it has already been established policy for some years now only to allow boats enter the pelagic and beamer fleets where equivalent tonnage is being withdrawn.
Second, there are major constraints on capacity arising from European Community fishing fleets policy. That policy is designed to address the problem of the serious over-capacity which exists in the Community as a whole. Recently there was an additional cause for concern arising from the fact that the fishing fleet of East Germany is double the size of the federal German fleet. Herr von Geldern, the Federal German Fisheries Minister on a visit to Dublin two weeks ago reassured me that a united Germany would not be making any extra demand on quotas. We must be very thankful for this relief.
All member states are required to reduce their fleet capacities by 3 per cent below the end 1984 level, and that was too low in the first place. This requirement poses very real difficulties for a number of member states, including Ireland, whose fleets had increased since 1984. In Ireland's case, the cutback in capacity requires that the fleet be reduced to 43,941 gross registered tonnes by the end of 1991. To date we have achieved the interim target of 57,355 tonnes set for the end of 1989. A substantial further reduction of about 6,000 tonnes is required by the end of 1990 to be followed next year by another of about the same order, in fact slightly greater. I am not happy with these restrictions and will continue to fight to have them revised. However, the same restrictions apply to all member states, and a lone voice is seldom heard. Moreover, there are linkages with other elements of policy and specifically the availability of significant financial assistance for the fishery sector generally. Countries which fail to reduce the GRT will not receive any financial aid from Structural Funds to modernise and refurbish their fleet.
It is obvious, therefore, that the scope for allowing new entrants into the fleet is strictly limited. Future decisions and policy guidelines to be applied in the assessment of licence applications must be consistent as far as possible with available unexploited fishing opportunities and be consistent as far as possible with EC parameters.
Against that background future licensing policy must of necessity be highly selective. In that context it is inevitable that in future licences will be issued generally on a replacement basis in the first instances. The rate of replacement will be determined primarily by the types of vessels involved and the species to be fished. That is the general policy that has been recommended to me by an expert group which I set up last year to advise on this issue.
I have, however, on hands some 240 applications seeking licences for boats which in aggregate would amount to about 18,000 tonnes or the equivalent of about a third of the existing fleet. Clearly only a small fraction of these applications will be successful. As the House is aware I recently established a special vetting committee under the chairmanship of the secretary of my Department to examine the applications on hand in the light of the general policy guidelines to apply for the future. I am now advised by that committee that, on the basis of a 100 per cent replacement policy only a handful of licences is allowable. These are to be issued shortly.
It is evident to me, and I am supported in this by scientific advice, that there are unexploited fishing opportunities available particularly in the white fish sector in deep waters which existing boats cannot catch. I am now specifically addressing the question of how best to structure my decisions on licensing policy so as, on the one hand, to facilitate the catching of these unexploited resources while on the other respecting the wider EC constraints. The House will see that that is in the nature of squaring the circle. I can assure the Deputy that my sole objective in deciding on licences is to safeguard the long term interests of Irish fishermen and of the Irish fishing industry as a whole.
Can the Minister give us any indication when his decision will be made?
The decision with regard to replacements is to be made this week.