Written Answers. - Common Fisheries Policy.
Madeleine Taylor-Quinn
Ceist:
5
Mrs. Taylor-Quinn
asked the
Minister for the Marine
if he will make a statement on the results of the recent meeting of the Council of Fisheries Ministers of the European Community; if he will outline in particular whether he has secured any increase in herring and mackerel quotas for Irish fishermen; and the stage the review of the Common Fisheries Policy has now reached.
The main purpose of the recent Council, which was held on 18 April, in Luxembourg, was to conduct an initial exchange of views concerning the midterm review of the Common Fisheries Policy.
The Council was, in fact, the first fullscale ministerial debate on the future of the Community's fisheries policy. At the meeting, I pressed strongly for further tangible recognition of the special position of the Irish fishing industry so as to allow it to continue to develop from the almost unique underdeveloped state in which it found itself in the seventies. This will continue to be Ireland's principal objective as the negotiations proceed.
I also indicated at the Council that I will be pressing for the removal of constraints applied under the Common Fisheries Policy which prevent Ireland from exploiting fully the potential of our fishing industry. In this regard, I have drawn the Council's attention particularly to the indiscriminate application of GRT restrictions and a less than imaginative structural policy, which in Ireland's case has prevented this country from fully utilising the quotas allocated to it by the Council itself. I have also pointed to the present highly unsatisfactory situation whereby Irish fishermen are, to all intents and purposes, excluded from participating in third country fishing agreements. I look forward to continuing discussions with my European colleagues on these important issues.
At the Council I drew attention to the extremely serious problem of illegal fishing by non-Community boats in waters to the south and south west of Ireland. The Council acknowledged the seriousness of the problem and accepted my proposal for co-ordinated Community action. Subsequent to the Council, the Commission convened an urgent meeting of the countries directly concerned with a view to taking concerted action to remedy the situation. At this meeting, arrangements were made for closer co-operation and the fast transfer of relevant information between member states.
Among the other issues discussed at the April Council were proposals for revised technical conservation measures, the collection of data on the landing of fisheries products and recent developments in fisheries relations between the Community and Namibia.
As regards the quota for mackerel, as the Deputy will be aware, the total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 1991 were agreed following a series of lengthy and difficult negotiations at the December Council of Fisheries Ministers. At these negotiations, I secured actual increases for 1991 in quotas for a number of "traditional" species, including mackerel, where the Irish quota has been increased from 70,550 tonnes in 1990 to 73,320 tonnes in 1991. An additional 4,000 tonnes has also been secured by means of a quota swop with the UK, bringing the total amount of mackerel available to Irish fishermen in 1991 to 77,320.
As regards herring, a potential increase in the quota for this stock must await the report of the Scientific and Technical Committee on Fisheries. Subject to favourable scientific advice, I shall, of course, be raising this issue at Council level later in the year.
As regards the review of the Common Fisheries Policy, the following is a synopsis of the progress to date: in early February 1991, the Director-General for Fisheries, Mr. Jose Almeida-Serra, visited Ireland to see at first hand the difficulties faced by the Irish industry and to engage in discussions with officials of my Department and representatives of the fishing industry in regard to the review; later in February, the head of the Commission Task Force on the review, Mr. Van de Poele, visited Ireland, again for a fact-finding and discussion visit; in March, I established a high-level group, consisting of representatives of the industry, officials of my Department, and independent experts, under the chairmanship of Dr. T.K. Whitaker, to advise me on the review; I have asked the group to make their report before the summer.
Since December 1989 there has been in existence an interdepartmental group, consisting of officials of my Department and of the Department of Foreign Affairs. This group have met on a number of occasions and have made a significant input to the deliberations currently underway in Brussels in relation to the review.
The Commission must make a report to the Council, in connection with the review, no later than the end of December 1991. The Commission continues to work towards that deadline. The Irish position on the review is being made known to the Commission at all possible levels, both political and official, for inclusion in the Commission's report.
