Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 April 2004
15 Mr. J. O’Keeffe asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties created by him for fishermen in the pelagic fleet because of the restriction imposed by him on landings of fish between midnight and 8 a.m.; and if he accepts that this causes problems for those dealing with perishable product and that it also has negative implications for the fish processing industry. [10179/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe new landing times for pelagic fish have been imposed because of more stringent monitoring controls and weighing procedures recently introduced by the European Commission in relation to the mackerel, horse mackerel and north west herring fisheries. These new rules are designed to facilitate effective control of pelagic fisheries. Such control is a key element in fisheries management policy and enables the sustainable management and development of the fisheries concerned. This is an entirely valid policy objective, and I fully support it.
In implementing the new EU procedures my Department has acceded to industry requests to allow landings at a variety of ports. The immediate impact of that decision was that some restrictions had to be placed on permitted landing times. While 24-hour coverage would be an ideal situation, there are certain organisational and resource realities and the current rate of coverage is a reasonable response. Current arrangements involve a maximum waiting period in Irish ports of up to eight hours during a weekday and up to 14 hours during a weekend.
These waiting times are in fact substantially less than the time that is often spent by some of these vessels sailing to alternative landing ports outside Ireland. This clearly indicates that even though the product is perishable the current limited waiting times in Irish ports are not a material consideration in the maintenance of catch quality.
My Department officials and I continue to work closely with the industry in the implementation of these new requirements. This dialogue will continue and I am confident that practical problems can be resolved. In this context I am not ruling out a possible extension to the existing permitted hours of landing provided that a clear justification exists and that sufficient resources are available to support any such changes.
