EU Fisheries Council

Speech delivered to Assembly on Mon 16th Nov 2009

I too welcome the debate and congratulate those who secured it. It brings back to me nostalgia for the days of the first Assembly, when, every autumn, the Agriculture Committee devoted parts of a number of meetings to discussions on the forthcoming European Fisheries Council meeting. We got the results after the Christmas break, and, generally, they were uniformly bad. However, it is important that that discussion is not confined just to the Agriculture Committee and that the motion is on the Floor of the Assembly for wider consideration of what is needed.

I remember how frequently, in the early days of the Assembly, the Committee was presented with two entirely differing views on the stock situation. A scientific view was generally cited by those who supported the European Commission, and there was the view from the decks of the vessels which sail of out of Portavogie, Ardglass and Kilkeel, and they rarely coincided on real stock levels in the Irish Sea.

In more recent years, work done by the Agri-food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) with fishermen has shown much greater consensus, at least locally, about what is possible and what is not. That scientific evidence must be supported by the Assembly and carried forward by the Minister in her discussions with other UK Ministers, hopefully with the support of her friends from Ireland, and into the European Fisheries Council in December to make an impact on the Commission as a view that is shared not just around here but as evidence that can start to make a real difference to us.

A report from the Minister in January about last December's European Fisheries Council meeting referred to a 2% cut in the nephrops quota, and a somewhat higher cut for cod. She pointed out in her statement to the Assembly that that was rather better than the 5% cut in the North Sea and west of Scotland. Nonetheless, in response to a question I asked, she pointed out that the 2% cut resulted in a £372,000 financial loss. That is how much fishermen in Northern Ireland lost from what was perceived as a modest cut. It also indicates why we must ensure that, if we are to continue to have a viable fishing industry in Northern Ireland, the cuts that are being talked about for some areas must be resisted, because it is clear from the scientific opinion of AFBI and the experience of those who work the trawlers that they are utterly unrealistic.

There was not only that £372,000 loss from the nephrops quota but a further loss to the white fish catches, where cod and haddock quotas did not quite balance out. That was not the extent of the financial loss, because costs in general for the fishing industry have gone up. Although the cost of fuel may fluctuate from month to month, the overall trend is for costs to go up, not down, and fishermen experience continuing suffering and difficulty. There is also the sheer difficulty of maintaining the capital cost of a boat if the number of days that it can be at sea to reap any reward from that investment is restricted.

There is clear evidence now that the science is in line with what the fishermen are saying, at least in the concept of our largest issue, nephrops. That evidence must be backed by the Assembly to show that that it has been noted.

A couple of Members referred to the by-catch of white fish and the criminal activities that take place when discards have to be thrown back into the sea rather than be used. Surely, that is something that we can all agree on, whether it is on the grounds of the fishermen's income or on the morality of throwing away good food in a hungry world. We must ensure that measures are taken that will deal with that issue properly, so that the by-catch issue does not become an excuse for cutting the quota of nephrops generally. We have heard a clear message on that matter from those who proposed the motion. Mr Elliott said that that was pressed on the Commissioner when the Committee was in Brussels recently, and I am glad of that. I trust that it is a message that we can rely on the Minister putting forward in her discussions with other Ministers and the Commission. I trust that she will be successful in putting forward the views of the Assembly to the Fisheries Council in December.