Fishing Quotas: Statements

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Martin Heydon)

I will share my time with the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley. I thank the Deputies for seeking the opportunity for statements on the fishing quotas for 2026. The Minister of State and I welcome the opportunity to further discuss this important issue and the concerns that continue to affect our fisheries and seafood sector.

The reduced level of quotas available for 2026 has caused considerable concern not only for the fishermen and fisherwomen directly impacted by reduced fishing opportunities, but for the wider seafood sector. Nearly all of the commercial fish stocks for which Ireland holds quota are shared with third countries, predominantly the UK. Only two stocks for which Ireland has quota, the sole and plaice stocks off the west of Ireland, are exclusively EU resources. The EU negotiates with third countries in order to agree on fishing opportunities for shared stocks for the following year. The European Commission has sole competence to negotiate with third countries on behalf of the EU on the setting of fishing opportunities. This is done on the basis of a mandate from the Council. Ireland fully engages in the process of setting this mandate to ensure our priorities and concerns are highlighted with the Commission and with other member states. The conclusions reached in Brussels in December are a culmination of these bilateral, trilateral and multilateral negotiations with third countries.

The scientific advice issued by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas, ICES, forms the basis for setting total allowable catches, TACs. The outcomes of the 2025 December meeting of the AGRIFISH Council resulted in severely reduced fishing quotas for 2026. This was mainly due to reductions in the scientific advice for key stocks, particularly mackerel. This is in addition to a 41% reduction in blue whiting, a 22% reduction in boarfish and further reductions in nephrops, which are more commonly known as prawns. These reductions were further compounded by Ireland not receiving its Hague preferences. Ireland’s fishing opportunities for 2026 amount to approximately 120,000 tonnes, with an estimated first-sale value of €205 million across the main pelagic, demersal and nephrops stocks for 2026. This represents a decrease of €100 million to €105 million on the estimated value of the 2025 quota. This reduction in fishing opportunities will present ongoing challenges for fleet planning, processing throughput and coastal communities that are highly dependent on specific fisheries.

While the scientific advice is disappointing and, above all, concerning, it is important that we remember that the science is a reflection of what is happening to our stocks. The reduction in the scientific advice for mackerel reflects the impact of overfishing of the mackerel stock by certain third countries. Ireland has long been critical of overfishing by other countries and has been vocal about the inevitable outcome that has now come about with regard to the state of the stock. As recently as yesterday, the Minister of State raised this matter at a meeting of the Council and called for the EU to take a strong position to protect our critical mackerel stock. He has done the same in previous Council meetings.

The 2026 quota outcomes reflect the continued balancing act between maintaining viable fishing opportunities and protecting fish stocks in line with scientific advice under the Common Fisheries Policy. For Ireland, this reinforces the importance of maximising value from available quota and maintaining high standards of quality and market positioning. My Department will continue to provide a range of supports and services to the Irish fleet under Ireland's €258 million seafood development programme, which is co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Commission under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund 2021-2027. In addition, last week, the Minister of State and I announced the 2026 fishery harbour and coastal infrastructure development fund, which allocates €27 million for capital projects in Ireland’s publicly owned harbours. This funding will support critical works across the six State-owned fishery harbour centres, improving safety, operational efficiency, environmental performance and climate resilience, thereby ensuring they continue to serve and support our seafood sector and coastal communities.

Notwithstanding these investments, I recognise that our fishing and seafood sector must be additionally supported through this very difficult time. Given the level of the challenge we are facing, a whole-of-government approach is required for an effective response. Along with the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, I have committed to engaging with colleagues across Government to assess what framework of supports may be available to the seafood sector and to explore options within the constraints of both EU and national Exchequer funding and the relevant EU and national legislation, taking particular account of the constraints imposed by EU state aid rules for the fisheries sector.

To facilitate this cross-governmental approach, the Minister of State and I established a seafood sector group under the auspices of Food Vision 2030. Food Vision 2030 is my Department’s strategy to position Ireland’s agrifood sector as a world leader in sustainable food systems. Our fishermen and fisherwomen and our aquaculture producers are fundamental to delivering on that strategy. While my Department has adopted the strategy, it belongs to all of the stakeholders who engaged in drawing it up at the very start. The establishment of the Food Vision seafood sector group signals the seriousness with which we intend to address the challenges facing our catching sector, both inshore and offshore, our aquaculture operators, our co-operatives and our processing sector. The group will consider the challenges facing all three components of the Irish seafood sector: catch fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing. It is also tasked with developing a framework of measures to respond to these challenges.

The Food Vision seafood sector group's membership includes industry representatives and relevant Departments and State agencies. Our aim is to draw on the collective experience and expertise of industry stakeholders to identify practical supports and develop a framework of both short- and long-term measures to help the sector navigate these challenges effectively. Solutions to be considered are in areas such as improving competitiveness and efficiency, developing existing market opportunities and considering areas where the sector can innovate. The group, which held its first meeting last week, is chaired by Michael Berkery. Mr. Berkery has been tasked with drafting a chairman’s report by June.

I again thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for facilitating these important debates. I am happy to hand over to the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley. I apologise in advance that I cannot stay for the entirety of the debate due to commitments in the Seanad shortly. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's office also for facilitating this important debate.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Timmy Dooley)

I thank the Minister, Deputy Heydon, for his continued support and the full stretch of his Department, in particular, in the area of marine and fisheries.

As the Minister indicated, the most significant element of the reduction in fishing quotas for 2026 is the reduction in the mackerel quota. It has had a very significant impact, not just on the catching sector but also on the processing sector because we control so much of that stock and have developed that fishery over many years. While there are many reasons a fish stock can fluctuate over time, for example, climate change and increasing sea temperatures are impacting on the stock's ability to reproduce, it is clear in the case of mackerel that the years of overfishing caused by third countries setting unilateral, unsustainable quotas is taking its toll on the stock.

In my time in this role, at every opportunity, I have called for action against those countries which overfish mackerel. We must be wider than that. We focus on mackerel but the level of overfishing by third countries is impacting across all species and impacting other countries equally. Given that Ireland holds the largest share of the EU quota for mackerel in the Western Waters area, Ireland's catching and processing sectors are the most exposed to the impacts of reductions in this stock.

On behalf of the Government, I have called for the EU to send a clear message that actions that threaten the sustainability of our shared stocks are not acceptable. I have raised this matter on a number of occasions at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, including in October and January when I called for urgent EU action needed on the north-east Atlantic pelagic stocks, particularly mackerel.

I have also emphasised the need for unity by way of a concerted EU response, including the option of triggering the unsustainable fishing regulation. Commissioner Kadis advised us at the December Council that measures would be explored by which action can be taken against third countries whose actions have caused such substantial damage to this shared natural resource. I reiterate that it is imperative that we do so. However, it is worth noting that not every member state agrees with the position we take on this. For geopolitical and other reasons, including relationships that exist between other countries in Europe and these third countries, there seems to be some resistance to invoke the unsustainable fishing regulation. It is well past time for that to happen. It has to be used as a methodology of ultimately getting a sharing arrangement that we find acceptable and that operates within scientific limits.

Even since the December Council, where the fishing opportunities for 2026 were adopted, we have seen questionable actions taken by third countries in how we manage the mackerel stock of the north-east Atlantic. In December, Norway, the UK, the Faroe Islands and Iceland agreed on management arrangements for mackerel for 2026 which excluded the EU. By the way, they excluded Greenland as well. EU countries were unaware that they were even attempting to put a deal together. They announced it as a fait accompli. It does not take a genius to figure out that they are not serious about an appropriate sharing arrangement or a recognition of the necessity to conserve the stock for the future of all member states that fish that species.

The ICES headline advice for mackerel for 2026 is 174,357 tonnes, representing a reduction of approximately 70% on the 2025 total allowable catch. This advice figure is based on a 50% probability that the stock will recover to what is referred to as Blim, or biomass limit, in 2027. Blim means the level of spawning stock biomass, in other words, the amount of sexually mature fish in a population, below which recruitment, that is, reproduction, is impaired or the stock dynamics are unknown.

However, the four parties to which I referred - Norway, the UK, the Faroe Islands and Iceland - have based their arrangements on a total allowable catch of almost 300,000 tonnes, which is significantly greater and with less emphasis on conservation. This represents a reduction of 48%, as opposed to the 70% which Europe opted for. This figure is based on an alternative catch scenario given by ICES based on application of the maximum sustainable yield, MSY, rule, ignoring that the stock is below Blim and is based on a 57% probability that the stock will recover to Blim in 2027. I know that is a bit long-winded. It has taken those of us who are involved in this some time to understand the methodologies used in the scientific analysis. It is clear from a casual observation that the approach being taken by the third countries is excluding the science. They are suggesting they are accepting some element of it, but then they do not include Greenland or the EU in the way they have allocated that cohort of stock. It is using a bully-boy approach of grabbing all they can and leave the rest of us to decide whether we want to ignore science or accept it.

The EU has about 20% of the overall catch in the sharing arrangement for mackerel. At a European level, we are minded to follow the science, rightly so. We are trying to be good citizens and work towards conservation. These countries, which control potentially 80% of the catch, are ignoring the headline advice. The question rightly put to us on a regular basis by fishers in Ireland is why we would bother conserving when we are only in control of 20% and the others take a raw abandon approach to the other 80%. Are we, they ask, just saving it for those countries? That is a valid question that is asked every day, and one I continuously put to the Commissioner, as we did again just yesterday in Brussels. What we are trying to do is push the Commission, on behalf of the European Union, into a more energised approach to negotiations. We need to get this matter resolved because our coastal communities are impacted very significantly. It is a source of annoyance when they continue to see open and fair trade with Norway in particular, yet Norway is, to anyone's mind, misbehaving in relation to the conservation of this important stock.

A meeting will be held early next month in Copenhagen between the EU and the third countries under the coastal states arrangement. I am hopeful that we will see some advances there. There will have to be compromise on all sides, but it has to be fair for everybody. That is what most impacts our sector and fishers, men and women. The next round of those coastal states consultations will take place on 5 and 6 March in Copenhagen. If there is a decision or some outcome from that, we expect to see it before the March AGRIFISH Council, which will be held at the end of March. I will continue to highlight that in the coming months.

Yesterday, we raised a point on this issue under "any other business", and we got considerable support from a number of countries, in particular Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Belgium. They joined with us, and then we had positive comments from others, including France, Poland, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria and Denmark. Bit by bit, we are building alliances around a recognition of the importance of getting a deal done on a comprehensive sharing arrangement that would transcend the current position.

I hope we can get something that is lasting for the next number of years. When we talk to the scientists in the Marine Institute, it is very clear that they have concerns about the state of mackerel and other stocks. If we could get a comprehensive sharing arrangement over a number of years, we would have the potential then to see some recovery. That would give certainty to the fishing fleets, the processing sector and coastal communities. As the Minister outlined, we saw this right from the start when the fishing industry, the Minister, I and others met with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste back in December. We knew where the scientific advice was going. The Minister was very clear at the time that we needed to put in place a framework of supports to assist the fishing sector in all its guises through that difficult period.

What we have to see with these reduced quotas, which are in line with the scientific advice, is a timeframe for conservation. We need to see it almost in a positive light, but there is nothing positive for the people who do not have fish to catch and process and have to raise their kids.

The work the Minister outlined has begun, with the task force led by Michael Berkery. This is an opportunity for all facets of the sector to bring forward proposals and ideas. Of course, we will not be able to fund all of them and we will never have the quantum of money available to us to meet everybody's needs. This is about having a baseline and sending a signal to the sector that the Government sees the importance of it and is prepared to stand by and support it during the period of stock recovery. There is little point in us investing in that and bringing forward ideas if others outside the Union are effectively going to fish it out anyway. We are on a hiding to nothing if that is the case. The immediate issue is to get that arrangement and relationship back on track and get everybody locked into whatever the number is, whether it is the upper or lower figure, whether it is the MSY, the Blim or the approach we are taking or whether it is 174,000 tonnes or 299,000 tonnes. We have to figure out how to share it among all concerned, get on with it and start the conservation measures that are necessary. That needs to happen.

As the Minister said, the mackerel fishery for us is principally in the first half of the year, probably the first three or four months. As such, we need to know what the total allowable catch is for this year and give that information to our fishers in order that they can plan their activities. There are not too many other options for them. There was a time when other stocks were available and they could switch. It is the same with some of the inshore fishermen. They are struggling and need our support.

I thank the Members who sought this opportunity to have a discussion. I look forward to the rest of the contributions.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

I had the chance last December to lay a number of facts on the table. I am going to repeat them. We need to speak out with passion about the rottenness of the Common Fisheries Policy and, I am sorry to say, the rottenness of the approach of the European Commission to all of this. Let us talk about the big five. These are the Dutch corporations that dominate so much quota across the European Union. The Common Fisheries Policy allows these huge corporations to legally buy up quota across the European Union. They control one sixth of the fish resource. That figure is probably even higher now, as it is from the last documented figures we have. The influence these corporations have is absolutely extraordinary. I am very clear that the big five Dutch-based corporations had more influence over the Netherlands, France, Germany and Poland than our country when it came to the Hague preferences. That is a shocking moment. I am sorry to say this, but our Taoiseach has been absent without leave in relation to all of this.

Deputy Conor D. McGuinness

Hear, hear.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Where the hell is he? How can he not speak out about what is happening? Everybody in the industry across Europe knows of the domination of these corporations and the control they have over policy. Everybody knows that they were able to influence those governments to stop the Hague preferences being invoked by Ireland. That has been our right for decades. It was a protection because of the access we gave to our waters. The UK was also able to avail of the Hague preferences. Now we are on our own. I believe these countries picked on this State of about 5 million people and utterly shafted us at the behest of major corporations.

It is not just the Common Fisheries Policy and what happens within our waters. These corporations are investing in the industries in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and I am sure they are partnering with industry in Norway. They are industrialising fishing. They are recklessly overfishing and are benefiting on the double when they come back and remove the Hague preferences from Ireland. What has happened here is utterly scandalous. It is rotten and corrupt. We have to say it out loud as a country. What on earth is Germany doing backing this utterly reprehensible behaviour, which goes against all the principles the European Union is supposed to stand for? Climate change - forget about that. Protecting vulnerable coastal communities - forget about that. Rewarding people who are involved in low-impact fishing - forget about that. Standing up for the little guy - forget about that. Making sure there is fairness and equality - forget about that. That is what all of this has amounted to. It is of the utmost seriousness.

I find it deeply sad that, in a country that is surrounded by water, an island nation, there has not been more media focus on this. In fairness, with a couple of honourable exceptions, I am astonished at the lack of media focus in Ireland on this issue. What is happening here is devastating for our fishing communities. How on earth can they not investigate the big five? I have a report here from the campaign group Bloom, which produced it a couple of years ago. I have another report entitled, Competing for Fish: How One Dutch Company Is Slowly Taking Over Much of Europe's Fishing Sector. These are investigative journalists. Where are the investigative journalists in Ireland? Where is the spotlight on these companies and what is going on? Why are they not asking questions? Why are they not looking for who joined the Dutch Government in its lobbies to the German, French and Polish Governments? Who was at the table? Are there exchanges or freedom of information requests? Where are our journalists during such an attack on our national interest? I would argue it is an unprecedented attack on our fishery resource. We know that the Common Fisheries Policy has been terrible, but what happened last December was an absolute new low.

It is critical that this task force now adequately financially compensates our sector to get us through this, but there has to be a plan. I am sorry to say it, but our Taoiseach is not at the table. He is not standing up for our interests. I know the Minister of State is doing his best, but the Taoiseach, whose job this is, is absent.

Deputy Conor D. McGuinness

The Minister of State does not need me to tell him that 2,300 jobs, at a conservative estimate, in our coastal communities are in jeopardy because of the quota deal reached in December 2025. The wider economic hit could reach €200 million. In ports like Dunmore East in my home county of Waterford, families are asking whether there is a future for them and their industry. When you step back and look at the decisions and attitudes of successive governments, their actions and, more critically, their inaction, it is impossible not to arrive at a conclusion that what we are witnessing now is the outworking of a managed decline and a slow, steady concentration and then reduction of our indigenous fishing industry. It is the hollowing out, decade after decade, of a noble, sustainable and economically vital way of life. What do we get then? We get acquiescence, silence and hand-wringing. We get Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael politicians offering tea and sympathy, promising to listen but failing to hear, saying something must be done while steadfastly refusing to do anything that would actually arrest that decline. Now, on this side of the House, the industry advocates for coastal communities are reduced to calling for life support. Even that is delayed, negotiated and made contingent.

Irish fishermen have abided by the rules. They have tied up their vessels when they have been asked. They have taken the quota cuts on the chin. They have invested in sustainability. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Poland moved to block the invocation of our Hague preferences, protecting their interests and the interests of a number of corporations while ours were exposed. Did the Government even take legal advice on challenging this? That is an important question that has to be put. Was legal advice sought on challenging this? In advance of the December negotiations, I raised this directly with the Taoiseach and urged him to intervene, as Head of Government, at that level with other Heads of Government with national delegations. Freedom of information records show he did precisely nothing. He met with the industry but did not lift the phone.

Decades of deflection reached their pinnacle in the political abandonment of the Minister of State, his negotiating team and officials and our fleet and coastal communities by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in December last year. Other member states fight hard for their fleets. Their Heads of Government pick up the phone, build those alliances and draw red lines but in Ireland, the Head of Government sat on his hands.

Let us take one example. Belgium can catch 450 tonnes of sole in Irish waters but the entire Irish fleet is left with just 28 tonnes. Belgium has less than half the coastline of Waterford but it has 450 tonnes of sole in Irish waters, while the Irish fishing fleet is left with just 28 tonnes. This is a recurring pattern across fisheries. It affects mackerel, prawns and other key stocks. This is not just about conservation. Conservation matters and is critical. Stocks must be protected and science must guide us but it is not a conservation crisis alone. It is about fair access and sovereignty. When our State provides some of the richest fishing waters in Europe but repeatedly sees its own fleets marginalised, people are entitled to ask serious questions. There are plenty of fish in our waters to sustain our industry and meet our conservation objectives but we are not doing that.

There cannot be any return to business as usual. An already fragile industry has been placed on a fatal course unless there is a radical reset in Ireland and in how we approach fisheries policy at European level. The Minister of State knows I come from a coastal community and county. I represent communities where fishing is not just an item or economic activity but a living tradition. Families in Dunmore East, Helvick, Passage East, Bunmahon and all along our coast have given generations to this industry. It is skilled, dangerous and honest work that underpins processors, hauliers, chandlers and small local businesses right across the south east.

It is now dangerously close to the point of no return; some would argue it is long past that. That is why we need urgent action. The task force the Minister of State has established should have been established before now. While we welcome that it is finally in place, it must not become just another talking shop. The terms of reference must reflect what the seafood sector has demanded and its recommendations must be acted on quickly. We need a commitment from the Government that its recommendations will be taken seriously. The Minister of State will understand the cynicism of coastal communities and the industry. Every time they see a task force, punishment generally follows.

We need adequate financial support for fishermen and seafood producers over the coming years. We also need a clear plan to secure a fair allocation of fish under the Common Fisheries Policy or we need to be done with it. We need to draw red lines and talk very seriously with our European partners about this. Crucially, and the Minister of State has heard us on this, we need to back our inshore sector. We support the demand by the National Inshore Fishermen's Association and others for income stabilisation and compensation schemes. It works in agriculture. We see farmers benefiting from similar schemes. We need to see something now as this industry is in crisis. For too long, we have this acquiescence, silence and hand-wringing. We need a new departure and we need it now.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Deputy Mac Lochlainn spoke about the "big five" and the big corporations that are out there, which have such power. They seem to have more power than countries and certainly seem to have more power than Ireland. That seems to be what the outcome of this is. We also have to recognise that their role in all this has brought us to where we are. It is these very corporations and their greed, where they put out these massive, big factory ships and absolutely decimate our waters. They just suck up everything and destroy the fishing beds and everything for the future. They are the ones that have caused the stock crisis and environmental crisis, but we now find ourselves in the position that the European Union is trying to salvage the situation and the very ones that destroyed it are the ones being rewarded for it.

While the Minister of State is obviously in his position, we need to recognise that this is a national crisis. The Taoiseach needs to step into the breach here and recognise it as such. We have a situation where fishing boats in Ireland, which people in fishing communities have invested their lives in, will go out to sea this year with a quota for possibly a week or ten days. Are they supposed to make a living from that? Factories may only be open to do processing for a few weeks, such is the low level of quota we are looking at. That will be decimation for the future and capacity of the industry, if things do improve. If this plan to get stocks to recover were to work, and I doubt very much it will because the corporations will continue to do what they have done, where will the capacity be in three, four or five years' time for our industry to be able to deal with a recovery in the fishery? It could not do it because it will be gone. Giving some kind of dole will not solve the problem. While there has to be income support and we have to try to salvage what we can, it is so important that we recognise this as the national crisis it is.

We have a vast scale of fisheries in Irish waters that have been totally plundered for decades, not only by fisheries from outside the European Union but by ones within it as well. Belgium, the Netherlands and these companies and countries have totally taken away the potential livelihood, not just of Irish fishermen but of other small fishermen from other countries within Europe as well. It has been a case of the biggest and more powerful corporations coming to the fore, destroying everything for everyone else and then being rewarded for doing so.

Our statements on quotas are really statements on what we are going to do. What will this Government do to step into the breach to defend our national interest, the environment and fishing stocks for the future? What answers has the Minister of State got? So far, all we are hearing is there are meetings, the possibility of some little bit of negotiation to improve things and that we are going to give some little bit of money to fishermen. This is a crisis way beyond that. We have to recognise that there has been a failure. Ireland's big failure when we went into European Union, which was the Common Market at the time, has been the fishing sector. The fishing sector was sold out from the very beginning. That is widely recognised. Now is the time, when we are probably at the darkest hour of it, for the Government to step up and recognise not just that we have to do something, but we have a plan and we will put that plan on the table. We need to see the Taoiseach and leaders of Government step into the breach to ensure we can deliver because this is a national crisis that has never been before.

On the issue in regard to the Hague preferences, this was a guarantee going back to 1976. What happened to it? It was just tossed away at the whim of the big corporations.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

I ask the Deputy to conclude.

Deputy Martin Kenny

We need to see an action plan. With due respect to the Minister of State, that action plan has to be driven by the very top of Government.

Deputy Robert O'Donoghue

It feels like déjà vu. We are back in the Chamber again discussing the ongoing crisis in our fishing industry. Somehow, it has worsened yet again. Our fisheries sector, for the nearly 17,000 people who work in it, who are just trying to do their best, make a living and support their communities, is completely swimming against the tide at this point.

I will speak on two deeply connected issues affecting our coastal communities. At the end of December 2025, the new EU fishing agreement was signed off by the EU fisheries Council. It will be catastrophic for Ireland. That agreement will result in an estimated €94 million in losses for the fishing industry in Ireland in 2026 alone. The second issue is the recent announcement of a €27 million investment under the fishery harbour and coastal infrastructure development programme. Both these issues are deeply connected. Representatives from the Irish fishing industry, in the audiovisual room at the end of January, outlined how severely reduced fishing opportunities will result in utter devastation, with one saying that some vessel operators will be restricted to 20 fishing days per year, when other countries are still overfishing.

The deal reduces Ireland's fishing quota by 57,000 tonnes. Over 2,300 jobs in our coastal communities face immediate danger, with a wider economic impact potentially reaching €100 million. Communities such as Killybegs, Castletownbere and Howth are not just statistics on a page. They are towns built around fishing, processing, engineering and supply chains. The consequences for them could be devastating. Representative bodies have stated that Ireland's fishing quotas will have fallen by 94,500 tonnes within two calendar years by 1 January 2026. By then, Ireland's total combined fish quotas within our exclusive economic zone will stand at just under 120,000 tonnes, valued at approximately €140 million.

They have been pointing out that, by stark contrast, other EU member states, along with certain other countries, have overfished against scientific evidence or advice and that Ireland is now paying the price. Sustainability cannot be one-sided; it must be observed by all. For many coastal communities, the figure given is not abstract. It is not a negotiating position or a statistical adjustment; rather, it represents boats tied up, incomes reduced and generational fishing businesses placed under further strain.

I welcome that the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, will be raising the need for the EU to take a strong position to correct our critical mackerel levels and the setting of the total allowable catch for mackerel that allows the recovery of stocks while providing a level playing field for fishing communities. The timing of subsequent announcements has been particularly difficult to reconcile, however. Shortly after the quota reductions were confirmed, the Minister of State and Minister, Deputy Heydon, announced a €27 million investment in Ireland’s publicly owned fishery harbour centres. On the surface, this investment is welcome. Our harbour infrastructure is critical. It supports fishing, aquaculture, marine tourism, tourism in general and leisure activity. It underpins local economies from Donegal and Cork to Galway and Wexford. However, when we examine the detail of the investment, we see that a serious imbalance emerges, one that repeats the same inequality we highlighted here last year. Of the total allocation of €27 million, €22.6 million is directed towards six State-owned fishery harbour centres. Only €4.3 million has been allocated for local authority piers and harbours, and that €4.3 million is provided based on a funding rate of just 75%. Local authorities must provide the remaining 25% themselves. That is not the full extent of the imbalance. Before local authorities can even provide funding in this area, they must first pay for the necessary surveys and licensing costs under the MARA regime. Meanwhile, for six fishery harbour centres, the costs associated with the same MARA process are borne by the parent Department.

State-owned harbours receive an overwhelming majority of capital funds, and their regulatory and licensing costs are centrally funded. Local authorities receive a fraction of the allocation. They must co-fund projects at a rate of 25%, and they must front-load survey and MARA licensing costs before eligibility is even considered. That is not parity; that is structural imbalance. In Donegal, for example, Donegal County Council has responsibility for more than 150 small piers and harbours. These facilities may not be designated as fishery harbour centres but they are the lifeblood of smaller fishing vessels, inshore fleets, aquaculture operators, tourism providers and leisure users. They are economic multipliers in fragile coastal regions.

How many local authority piers and harbours exist nationally? What is the total number across all coastal communities? How does €4.3 million nationally equate to meaningful investment, given the scale of need in our infrastructure? If we are serious about fairness, the first step must be transparency. I am therefore calling on the Department to publish the total number of local authority piers and harbours so we can quantify the true scale of the discrepancy and have an informed discussion about equitable distribution. This is not about putting one county against another; it is about the principle that all coastal infrastructure contributes to the local and national economy.

At this point, the message has been heard loud and clear along our coastal communities. Quotas have been cut at European level. Supports are announced at national level but the bulk of supports flow to a small number of centrally controlled harbours while local authorities are left to stretch limited resources across an extensive network of smaller but equally vital facilities. That approach risks widening the divide between large port infrastructure and smaller community harbours. If the Department believes coastal resilience is a national priority, as I do, funding mechanisms must reflect that. Fishing communities are not asking for special treatment but for fair treatment. They are asking for it to be recognised that coastal infrastructure, whether State owned or local authority managed, forms one interconnected marine community.

At a moment when confidence in the sector is shaken by quota reductions agreed at EU level, the collapse of our fishing community is looking increasingly likely, and the fishing industry hangs in the balance, the Government must ensure the domestic funding model does not compound the pressure. The investment is welcome but equity is essential for all fishing communities.

I agree with my Sinn Féin colleagues that an action plan is needed to redress the imbalance from which we have suffered for the past 50 years.

Deputy David Maxwell

I thank the Minister of State for taking the time to allow the dire situation concerning fishing quotas to be discussed in the House today. The more time that I, being from an inland county, spend studying this industry, its history, its policies and its recent challenges, the more I note the deep frustration that exists within it. I will be honest. Based on my own research and engagement, I must share the frustration. Fishing is not simply an economic activity; it is about identity, heritage and family. It is the backbone of many of our coastal communities. When we talk about fish, we are not just talking about quota numbers or regulations but about livelihoods from the sea to the shore. We are talking about fishermen and fisherwomen, processors, transport operators, engineers, net makers, fuel suppliers and the many small businesses that depend on a vibrant marine economy.

I am happy that the Minister, Deputy Heydon, visited Killybegs last week and saw first-hand what the lack of quota means, not in theory but in reality. He saw the direct impact on boats tied up, on factories that echo with silence and that are under pressure, and on service industries that rely on activity in our ports. That kind of engagement matters. Seeing the situation on the ground gives perspective that no briefing paper can fully provide.

Alongside the economic pressures, there is something that cannot be ignored. Over many years, a sense has grown within the industry that it is not always viewed as a partner in respect of sustainability and national prosperity but rather as a problem to be managed. Whether that perception is fully fair or not, it exists. That perception shapes trust. This perception exists because we are all part of one CFP in the EU. How can it be that it is applied differently depending on where a boat is registered? Take Irish boats compared with Dutch boats, for example. Ireland’s pelagic fishing and production is compelled to have the following, from what I can establish, under rules imposed by the European Commission: standard weighing equipment with a 30-minute zero-setting interval, state-of-the-art flow scales across the sector, and weighing systems that must be under CCTV, with footage live-fed to the competent authority. I saw the latter in Killybegs last year. The footage must be retained by each individual processor for six months. That involves a significant volume of CCTV images maintained by Irish processors. We are subject to a sampling plan, and weight estimation must be carried out under CCTV also.

Between bringing fish ashore, weighing them and processing them, over a dozen different sets of documents, declarations, stock returns or electronic transport documents must be filled in and returned to the competent authority. Our fishermen are subject to all the full inspections and audits routinely but when I examine the position on Dutch factory ships in our waters, which are supposedly operating under the same EU rules, I cannot find evidence of flow scales and CCTV. I do not believe there is image retention for six months, and the same applies to sampling under camera. I do not know about cross-compliance. The ships are definitely not subject to routine inspection by the Irish competent authority and to any audit while fishing west of Ireland. Despite this, Ireland and the Netherlands are subject to the same CFP, as are other EU countries.

In the past couple of weeks, the waters west of Ireland had a number of vessels from at least eight different EU and non-EU nations. What was noticeable was the lack of an Irish naval vessel monitoring all these foreign vessels in our waters. Also missing from our waters, from what I could observe this month, were European Fisheries Control Agency patrol vessels. However, they can appear in our waters in the couple of months when our own Irish vessels arrive to fish. When trust erodes between an industry and the institutions meant to oversee it, the consequences are serious. Morale declines, co-operation weakens and dialogue becomes strained. Ultimately, progress stalls.

This year, opportunities for fishermen have been drastically reduced owing to a quota reduction of 57,000 tonnes, or 70%. As the Minister of State said, the biggest reductions are to mackerel quotas. This is not because of our fishermen’s activities but because of overfishing by third countries. All these reductions are impacting up to 2,300 jobs, not in big cities or towns but on the edge of this island, with an estimated sales loss of up to €105 million.

Many in the sector feel that the decisions affecting their future are too often taken without sufficient understanding of the realities at sea or how critical it is to keep the product fresh and in grade A condition when it reaches the processors. They feel that regulations can sometimes be introduced in ways that are rigid rather than practical. They feel that enforcement can at times appear disproportionate rather than balanced. These concerns deserve to be acknowledged and not dismissed.

The fishing community in Ireland has shown time and time again that it is prepared to comply with the rules and adapt to change. Sustainability is not the enemy of fishermen; it is their future. They understand better than anyone that without healthy stocks there is no industry, but sustainability must walk hand in hand with viability. One cannot come at the complete expense of the other. Where enforcement bodies such as the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority operate, they carry out an important and necessary role. Oversight is part of any regulated industry, but enforcement works best when it is seen as fair, proportionate and rooted in mutual respect. When that balance slips, it can create tension that serves no one. I have met the SFPA in person for only two and a half hours in committee, and an old saying came to mind that day: You could not like them if you reared them.

There are genuine concerns being expressed about the operational impact of certain regulatory approaches, about quality implications when landings are delayed, about repeated audits disrupting processing schedules and about the reputational damage caused by cases that ultimately do not stand up in court. Even when matters are resolved, the stress and the costs remain. We cannot afford an environment where mistrust defines the relationship between regulators and the regulated, nor can we allow divisions to widen in ports like Castletownbere, Unionhall, Killybegs and the others across the island. What we need now is not confrontation but a reset: a reset in tone, a reset in engagement and a reset in how we view this industry.

The people working within our Departments are public servants. Their role is to serve the interests of the nation, and the fishing industry is very much part of our national interest. It combines economically, culturally and strategically. It supports rural Ireland in ways few other sectors can.

This Government has an opportunity and a responsibility to rebuild confidence. That means ensuring that policy decisions are informed not just by data but by lived experience. It means creating structured, meaningful dialogue between officials and industry representatives. It means ensuring proportionality, enforcement and transparency in decision-making. Most of all, it means recognising that the men and women who go to sea in dangerous conditions are not adversaries but citizens, taxpayers and custodians of a centuries-old tradition. The downturn we have witnessed in recent years has not been inevitable. Some factors are beyond our control: international agreements, Brexit and global market pressures. How we respond domestically, however, is entirely within our control.

I thank my Seanad colleague Senator Manus Boyle for all his work in trying to make fishing front and centre for this Government. We can choose collaboration over tensions. We can choose reform over stagnation. We can choose to see fishing not as a shrinking legacy industry but as a modern sector capable of innovation, sustainability and growth. If we take that path, we can restore confidence in our coastal communities, we can create a system where regulation works for all without suffocating livelihoods, and we can ensure that future generations still see fishing as a viable and respected career. The frustrations within the industry are real. They should not be ignored but nor should they divide us. This is a moment to correct the course calmly, constructively and with the national interest at heart. Our fishermen and fisherwomen deserve fairness, our processors deserve stability, our coastal communities deserve opportunity and Ireland deserves a marine sector that reflects all that.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

This is not the first time we have dealt with this issue. It is fair to say the fishing industry is - I would like to say apoplectic but I believe it is actually beaten down by the situation and circumstances in which it finds itself. It sees the deal a number of months ago rightfully as a betrayal of the fishing industry. It puts 2,300 coastal community jobs in immediate danger. We are talking about 57 tonnes less quota to fish each year, a loss of €94 million to the industry. Wider economic impacts are up on €200 million.

We know exactly what has happened. We are talking about the closure of factories. We are talking about it not being viable in any way for fishermen and fisher communities to continue doing what they have done for centuries. We have often been in here talking about sustainable farming, but I do not think anyone has even used the term "sustainable fishing" because we have not seen it in any way from the point of view of it being sustainable for those people and their families who have done this for generations. Again, it is not the first time it has been brought up in relation to the particular issues in Clogherhead, where we have had, let us be clear, illegal operators that have put real pressure on fishermen. We are talking about operators from abroad. We are talking about health and safety and every rule and regulation being absolutely overlooked. Not that long ago I was contacted by a man who works in the field. It was about another sunken boat. He said he rightfully has to go through the ins and outs of health and safety procedures. He needs to ensure he has a sufficient level of staff. He needs to ensure that everything is done absolutely by the book. He spoke to the people who were involved in this sunken ship or boat and then he actually went to Clogherhead Harbour and saw them in operation. There were no winches and no protections. There were a number of people doing really unsafe things without the proper gear. They literally laughed him off when he told them about the issues.

I brought up this issue, as did he, with Louth County Council. The council is aware of the issue. I believe it has happened in other ports and harbours. They are looking at ensuring that pressure will be put on to change this. We need to make sure that we have a full-time resource and that there is a full-time person with responsibility as harbour master. We need to ensure that all that is done. I ask first of all, however, that we revisit what has been an absolute disaster and betrayal of the fishing industry. There is a very specific piece of work that needs to be done in the likes of Clogherhead and throughout the entire State from the point of view of cutting out this illegality that is cutting away from those people who have fished for generations.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

Today, in the fisheries committee, we had a very interesting meeting on the sustainable management of the crayfish fishery. The Marine Institute's latest four-year study on the tangle net crayfish fishery in Tralee and Dingle shows us with absolute clarity what is at stake if the crayfish fishery continues to operate as normal. The substantial by-catch of angel shark and flapper skate as well as grey skate and numbers of other protected species will push these species further towards extinction. It is not a hypothetical risk; that is what the data tells us. Angel sharks, a critically endangered species, simply cannot absorb additional mortality. If we allow the tangle net fishery to continue unchanged, we are effectively pushing this species closer not just to local extinction but actually to global extinction. While this issue is closely tied to tangle nets and inshore fisheries, it also sits within the wider quota context that frames every decision an inshore fisher makes today.

We had a very good debate today on this issue, and inshore fishermen want to do what they can. They understand. They, probably more than anyone else, know the difficulties that the inshore environment is in at the moment, the challenges and the pressures that are put on it. It is clear from talking to those inshore fishers that what constantly happens is that when we do not get things right at a more national level, when we do not get things right at an EU level, when we have countries fishing for species that would traditionally be Irish quotas, it puts pressure on those fishermen, which in turn is like a domino effect, and it in turn impacts our inshore fishermen, who are the ones getting squeezed out of existence here.

When we talk about the fishing industry, and if people were to close their eyes and picture it, it is the inshore fishermen we are talking about and that is what we see. It is where the majority of the boats are and where the majority of the local involvement and the employment happens. Unfortunately, they are bearing the brunt of an EU-wide system that just is not fit for purpose at the moment and they are absolutely being squeezed by it.

The one thing I know from talking to them is that they want to be part of the solution, and they are putting forward solutions. What we need and they need is a fair share of the quota. We need to be looking at ways they can diversify. We know with mackerel being hit the inshore fishermen recognise that the chance of their getting a greater quota than 400 tonnes is probably off the table for a number of years. However, we need to start looking at other species. We have discussed bluefin tuna and I think there is a real opportunity with that. I know that this, again, is a difficult one because, as a small player on the EU stage, if we want to get a bluefin tuna quota we have to get it from another country. That will be really important. There has to be pressure, and we have to do everything we can diplomatically to get that because it is only through the diversification of the inshore that we will be able to address a lot of the environmental issues the inshore is facing. Inshore fishermen need alternatives and at the moment they do not have them. They are being pushed into crayfish and brown crab which has its own difficulties. That impacts our environment and means species like angelfish will be gone and we will be responsible for it. We are one of the few countries that still has this species.

If we do not get this right, not only could we potentially force these species into extinction, but I also think we will be forcing the fishermen themselves into extinction. If you are putting all of your eggs into one basket and fishing solely for crayfish, that fishery is going to come under pressure. It may not be obvious now but there is only so much that any fishery can withstand. If all the effort is being put on one particular species, that is just not going to work. We need to have sustainable management of this. The fishermen are certainly on board to work with the Marine Institute, the Department, which was in today, and with the scientists to try to get that done. I ask that the Minister of State give as much support as possible to that. It will require finances. This is not going to be free. I know there is work under way on an income stabilisation scheme, which is really important, and I absolutely support the Minister of State in that. We need to make sure there is a financial safety net for fishermen. If we are trying to encourage people to move from tangle nets to pot fishery, pots cost approximately €100. That is expensive. It will require funding, but it will ultimately be for the greater good.

I mentioned one thing in our most recent committee meeting. I do not know if it has really been discussed in the context of this, but €3.5 billion is being put aside for the climate and nature fund. That is a lot of money being set aside specifically for those issues. I ask that the Minister of State look into seeing whether there is a way to develop a programme for inshore fishermen using that fund whereby they can still participate in their fisheries but also perform more management functions and biodiversity protection and for that to come under a nature scheme. We obviously have the nature restoration laws coming down the road and there will be requirements on us from a marine perspective, but there is an opportunity there. There is money set aside in that fund. We tend to forget about it when it comes to biodiversity, but I absolutely think that is something the Minister of State should look into, and I ask that he do so. As I said, we need to ensure that the inshore fishermen are not pushed to the verge of extinction here, including our environment. I ask that he support that.

Deputy Sinéad Gibney

I was encouraged to hear the Minister of State's commitment to using every lever available to him at European Union level to address this because we are at an absolute crisis point for Ireland's fishing industry. I also heard him couch that within the geopolitical pressures this Government faces as a member state of the European Union, but there are obviously concerns. The guarantees given to us during Brexit negotiations are not worth the paper they are written on. Fishing communities up and down the country are facing a cut of one third of our fishing quotas. When I say the fishing industry, it is important to remember that this is our heritage. These are our communities, coastal livelihoods and traditions that are under threat. We have heard that cut of one third in quotas potentially threatens thousands of jobs. We also face the massive knock-on impact of this crisis on those communities up and down the coast, which will see less money in their local economies as a direct result of this quota cut. They are no strangers to hardship in these communities that have walked on a cliff edge since the introduction of the Common Fisheries Policy. The Brexit deal, where their rights were further eroded in the interests of getting a deal done, further pushed them towards the edge. They are now simply in freefall. We need those communities to be protected and supported because right now they feel abandoned. Tá traidisiúin iascaireachta na tíre i gcontúirt. Caithfear dul i ngleic leis na fadhbanna atá roimh na pobail ar fud chósta na hÉireann. Ní féidir neamhaird a thabhairt ar a gcruachás níos mó. Ní féidir le maireachtáil le dhá thrian den ioncam a bhí acu, agus níl aon dóchas á thabhairt dóibh. There has long been an understanding at EU level when it comes to fisheries policy that Ireland contributes far more than we get back. To allay concerns we were given reassurances that such drastic falls in quotas as we are seeing would not happen. The Hague preferences were first introduced in the seventies to acknowledge that when the overall total allowable catch falls, that our coastal communities are not left with an even smaller share, which threatens their ability to survive and their viability as a community. We have since then seen total betrayal of those principles and a betrayal of Irish fishers at EU level. We need to have confidence that fishing can happen at Irish and EU level in a sustainable way, which protects fishing stocks and allows small fishers to make a living. However, for that to happen we need to give these goals the priority they need in making deals at EU level. We have seen how those deals, be they quota negotiations or Brexit, have left our fishing communities behind. We cannot allow this pattern to continue.

Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher

I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on the fishing sector. As we debate this today we look at the state of the fishing sector in Ireland due to the policies of various EU Commissions since Brexit. As a result of the Brexit deal, we lost 26% of the value of our quotas overnight in December 2020. For that we cannot point a finger at the Commission in total, but I can point a finger at former Commissioner Barnier, who came into this House. I have said this before, and I repeat it. He looked me straight in the eye when I said how concerned I was because he was negotiating on behalf of the Commission. He said we would have no difficulty with the fishing sector because fishing and trade would be inextricably linked. Perhaps I was naive enough to believe that when Brexit was signed off on. I can blame him, but I can also blame the Government of the day. I recommended that we should veto Brexit. It might have been a big call, but if we threatened to veto Brexit, we would have had a different outcome.

Reference was made to the Hague preferences. For many years I attended the council of fisheries meetings in Brussels, particularly the attacks on quotas. I was a Member of the European Parliament and a full member of the fisheries committee. I waited over those nights and met with the industry. The Hague preferences were always and ever invoked. There were times we had to go away and negotiate. We are talking now about alliances. We could not form an alliance to ensure we could have the Hague preferences invoked. It would have been so important to us.

That brings me to the tax and quotas this year and the reduction in mackerel of 70%. It defies belief that 70% was recommended by ICES for the coastal states but, on the other hand, there was a 48% secondary proposal for Iceland, Norway, the Faroes and the UK.

That makes no sense. It does not say a lot for the European negotiators that they allowed this to happen, but all is not yet lost. I know from experience that the TACs and quotas have to be written in stone by 31 March, so we have another four to five weeks to do that. The Minister of State made the case yesterday at the Council meeting. He must continue to make it. He has to work with the alliances that are there in order to try and convince the European Commission that we should not have to accept a 70% reduction while the countries to which I refer only have to accept a reduction of 48%. That is the advice that came from ICES.

In all the years that I have been going to and coming back from Brussels, never once did I experience something where the proposals for TACs and quotas proposed by ICES became the actual measures. There was always room for manoeuvre. Before we left Dublin, we knew that it would not be the proposal but a percentage of that. That did not change this year. What happened? The big countries, the Commission and, I have to make a political charge here, the Commissioner threw little Ireland under the bus. It was wrong of them to do that. When I was in my office, I listened to Deputy Mac Lochlainn speak about the big countries. I knew all of those people. I phoned them and they said "Well, this is business". In fairness, their countries made the case and they have the large percentage of the TACs and quotas.

The task force established by the Minister of State must step up to the challenge. I have been involved in the fishing sector since I was a student working in Burtonport. Working in it helped me through college. From there, I progressed to managing the factory in Killybegs. We set up a fish canning factory in Dungloe. I have been involved in fishing all my life, but this is the worst year I have ever experienced. This matter could have been dealt with better if we had support in Europe, but there was no support. The coastal counties and areas where there is no alternative source of employment have been decimated. We have to ensure that the task force looks after the interests of all those who have been affected.

Let me now make reference to the bureaucracy that exists in this country. Between landing, fish processing and exporting, we are the only country in the EU where someone has to complete 14 sets of documents in order to declare returns. Everything is now on computers, and they have to do that physically from the time that they get in. Even the drivers have to be computer literate. They have to do that when they get into the trucks. We are the only country that does this. How can we say it is a Common Fisheries Policy when other countries do not have to do this? That is a question to be answered by the SFPA. We will have an opportunity to do so again in the committee.

There seems to be an anti-fisherman attitude in this country. Regardless of whether it is the Department or the SFPA, they see fishermen as rogues. I have been in this industry all my life and I will stand up in any place on any platform and put my hand on my heart to say that they are decent, honourable people-----

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Hear hear.

Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher

-----who told me many times that they did not want to exceed the quotas because then they were selling black fish, which brings down the price of the others. They are honourable people who get very little funding from the State when they go out to buy their boats and provide employment. It is so sad to look at the ports where I worked and processed fish. I processed fish in ports from Clogherhead to Dunmore East to Cobh to Castletownbere and up the coast to Rossaveal, Killybegs and Burtonport and on the Isle of Man. The people I saw were all hard-working individuals, but there is an attitude to them in the Department and at SFPA level. Any Deputy who is a member of the committee will realise that there seems to be such an attitude towards fishermen. As long as I am here, I will stand up for the interests of fishermen. Fishermen invest heavily. I hope the task force that the Minister of State has established with the support of his colleagues in government is not a box-ticking exercise. There must be positive results coming from that.

The industry has gone through very difficult times, but this is the worst period I have seen in my lifetime. There is a real question as to how the European Commission allowed four countries to cancel the Hague preferences is a real question. Where the Minister of State finds himself is a lonely place to be. I have been there and done that. You are fighting an uphill battle. The Minister of State tried his utmost to secure the support of other countries to ensure that the Hague preferences would not be cancelled.

The Commission has a duty to protect small member states. What occurred in Brussels before Christmas breaches 50 years of good practice and good faith. How can we and the sector have confidence in the Commission? I have heard some people suggest that we should await the review of the CFP. I would not be holding my breath. I have been there and done that at the fisheries committee when I was its vice president. I led delegations to Iceland. There was a time I thought that the Commission and Commissioner Damanaki were representing Iceland. She was doing more to support Iceland than she was to represent the country she was appointed to represent as a member of the Commission. I would have to make the political charge that the Danish presidency was not impartial and did not assist Ireland. I do not know whether or not this has been done but I again recommend that a letter of protest be sent by the Minister of State or, if necessary, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to express our disappointment at the way we were treated last year. Let us be positive, look ahead and say that the Minister of State has our support with a view to ensuring that the task force will take all the elements into consideration. I believe some time, but not that much, will be needed to come up with proposals before they are finalised. Everybody in the industry should have an input into that.

Deputy Pearse Doherty

The EU fisheries deal represents another serious failure on the part of the Government to adequately defend Ireland's fishing interests. While the impact will be felt right across the State, it is coastal communities in places such as Killybegs in my constituency, Kilcar and elsewhere that will feel it most acutely. The Seafood Ireland Alliance is warning that this could mean a €200 million hit for the Irish fishing industry. If the Minister of State thinks that jobs will not be lost as a result of this, he is living in denial. It is an extraordinary figure. The consequences for Killybegs and many other areas and coastal areas will be profound.

Under this new deal, the safeguards of the Hague preferences were not applied. Larger member states resisted and Ireland did not secure their activation. We now face a situation where factories such as those in Killybegs, which operated three to five months of the year, could see their activity reduced to as little as ten or 12 days. The knock-on effect of that in terms of factories and jobs will be significant. It is not sustainable for workers, families, the community or local businesses. Similarly, vessels that should be at sea for extended fishing seasons may find themselves fishing for less than ten or 12 days before being tied up and parked in Killybegs for even longer than they already are.

Our fishing industry is resilient. It has adapted to regulatory changes over and over again. Those in the industry have invested in modern vessels and processing capacity against all the odds. It is long past time that the Government stood up for the fishing industry and showed a bit of a backbone. The Government knew that other member states would defend their interests robustly. When the time came, Ireland did not secure the protections that exist precisely to prevent disproportionate harm. It is only right now to ask whether we are building alliances, preparing strategies or using every available lever to defend our national interests.

There needs to be a three-pronged approach of attack. First, the Government must clearly set out what legal and diplomatic avenues remain open regarding the non-application of the Hague preferences. Second, there must be an immediate targeted financial support package for fishermen and seafood producers. Third, we need a strategic plan to secure Ireland's fair share of fish in our waters under the CFP.

Fishing supports families who have worked Irish waters for generations, it sustains rural communities where alternative employment is limited and it contributes significantly to exports and food security.

Our fishing industry does not want special treatment; it wants fair treatment. It wants the safeguards that were designed to protect it to be properly used. It wants a Government that approaches fisheries negotiation with the same determination that other states display. There is still time to mitigate the worst impacts of this deal but what it requires is decisiveness, transparency and, most of all, political will. This Government needs to stop abandoning the fishing industry and stand up and show a bit of a backbone.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Hear hear.

Deputy Charles Ward

I stand before the Minister of State again. I have raised this countless times with industry representatives and every week at the fisheries committee along with all of my colleagues from Donegal. This is the time for action. We all know the issues in the fishing industry and what we need to do to address them but the issue is will. There is no will from the Government regarding this. There is an absence of will and we are left with this debate - a fruitless attempt by the Government to demonstrate to the public that we are addressing the issue when, in fact, we gave up on the fishing industry decades ago.

This is not a criticism of the Minister of State. He is genuinely doing his best, along with his staff. It is clear he cares about this industry. However, he has been given a poisoned chalice. This poisoned chalice has been given to him through decades of neglect by Government of the fishing industry. There is no doubt Government has allowed this decline to happen. It has been happening for generations. I have seen it where I am from - Árainn Mhór island - where my family fished. We had Burtonport, a thriving port that is now a ghost town.

We allow other countries to do what they like and get away with it. There is no equality here. It is unbelievable when it is laid out. In 2010, Iceland and the Faroe Islands increased their mackerel quotas without consulting the countries which had shared interest in these stocks. In 2013, the Faroe Islands that increased its allowance of herring by 229%. In 2021, the Faroe Islands and Norway raised their mackerel quotas without agreement from the EU, despite the fact that Ireland is most reliant on mackerel. In 2020, following the Brexit trade co-operation agreement, 40% of the total value of the European quotas were transferred to the UK from Ireland. We let Europe sell this on our behalf. This is clear evidence that Ireland's negotiating power in this was incredibly weak. These are marine resources and they are worth a lot more than what we have given away.

In 2024, the UK signed an agreement with Norway and the Faroe Islands, dividing 70% of the mackerel between them, again, without involving the EU. We can see a pattern emerging. Today's vessels from EU states as well as fleets from the southern hemisphere can fish bluefin tuna in our waters while Irish fishermen are forced to observe because Europe has not allowed us to access this stock. French and British vessels continue to fish for seabass on our doorstep while we have not been able to do this since the 1990s.

The recent mackerel quota assigned to Irish fisheries represents yet another blatant injustice for our industry, as countries such as Norway, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and the UK have agreed a 40% higher allowance catch than the member states. Not only are countries not being penalised for overfishing, they are actually being rewarded for it. No matter how often we present these facts, they never fail to shock because it keeps getting worse. Our industry is clearly in decline.

The Government keeps trying to operate within a framework that has never been designed with our interests in mind. It is a fact that we are at a disadvantage and are trying to please Europe above our own needs. It is clear that the policy holds us back, yet there seems to be no appetite to ensure this outdated policy is updated and our position is renegotiated. Instead, the Government keeps us trying to work within an unbalanced system that is meant to work for us but actually works against us. We need to wake up to this. We need to make sure we take accountability. The Government claims our fishing rights have been taken from us as if we are powerless. We are not powerless; we have surrendered those rights. We continue to take a weak negotiation stance. We cannot continue to do that. We must stand up and take back our waters.

Will the Government and public representatives truly stand up and fight for the fishing industry? We have to stand up and fight. We have constituents up and down the land depending on us. Right now, we are not providing them with any cover for the future. The fishing industry is dying. Every single week it loses people. They are leaving. The Government cannot talk its way out of this, no matter how many debates we have on this issue.

I want to bring this back to the fishing communities. Fishing communities are the heart of the debate, particularly in Donegal. These are the people impacted the most. I can confirm there is at least one trawler in Killybegs that finished up for the season last week. It finished up in mid-February. The boat is now tied up for the rest of the year. The fishermen are without work until the end of the year. Eight weeks of work is hardly what you would call a sustainable job. These are fishermen on some of the biggest trawlers in the country. Traditional small-scale fisheries are experiencing even more difficulty. They have significant cultural, social and community importance and must be supported financially. There is a very real need to reduce the special local draft net licence duty for Loughros estuary. I ask the Minister of State to please consider this. At present, a special local draft net licence is priced at €545, which €147 more than the cost of an ordinary drift net licence, despite a significantly shorter season and more limited fishing opportunities on the estuary. A reduction in the licence fee would be a practical measure to help sustain the fisheries while having minimal fiscal impact and sustaining a tradition that goes back many a generation. The special local drift net licence fee should be reduced before a 2026 season, in line with the ordinary drift net licence and in recognition of fewer fishing opportunities and a shorter season to apply to the estuary. I would be grateful if the Minister of State would come back to me regarding that.

We need to support our fishers and the industry as a whole, and do the best we can. It takes an entire community to build a successful fishing industry, and entire communities will suffer as a result of its decline. The Government has to stand up. What is going on is a decline in the fishing industry up and down the country. I have seen it happen in my own island of Árainn Mhór in County Donegal, where we had a fishing industry that is no longer there. I am so worried this is going to happen to Killybegs, and all the way down to Castletownbere. The Minister of State will stand up and fight - I do believe that - but we have to take it to Europe that enough is enough. The Faroe Islands have been out of control for a long time. We have to stand up and say enough is enough.

Deputy Michael Cahill

At the outset, I acknowledge the tremendous work the Minister of State is putting into this area at a very difficult time. He has visited every single fishing community at this stage. He is working night and day on this, meeting all the people involved in the industry, visiting fishing communities, meeting fishermen and fisherwomen, and owners of processing plants which export our fish and shellfish all over the globe. This is an extremely difficult time.

The Minister of State has inherited a problem. The industry has suffered serious and savage cuts, going back to when we joined the EU, more recently during Brexit and with the 70% cut in our mackerel quota and 41% cut in our blue whiting quota. We have to tackle the issue of Norway, the UK, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. It is fair to say they are actually laughing at us and getting away with blue murder, which we call it in Kerry. We need to contact the Commission and the European Court of Human Rights with regard to this serious matter. Our fishing communities are going to be completely wiped out if we do not act now.

It is important to preserve and rebuild our stocks, but it is also important to protect the livelihoods of all those employed in the fishing industry.

We are, it is fair to say, a small island surrounded by water. We are surrounded by some of the very best fishing waters. The Minister of State's heart is in the right place. I know he is spending more than 24-7 at this. He has been to Europe and Brussels at high-powered meetings. We have to keep at this in order to try to reverse what is happening. We need to ensure a future for all those involved in this area. I know that the Minister of State will do his best, as will the senior Minister and the Taoiseach, in regard to this matter.

I am member of the joint fisheries and maritime committee. It is disappointing that on an almost weekly basis when the Dáil is sitting we are talking about the difficulties being faced by those involved in the industry. It is all very well to provide compensation, but I think we need to do more. Ultimately, fishermen want to fish. There is no real need to encourage the Minister of State in this regard, because I know he will do his best. However, I ask him to do everything he can to try to secure the futures of Irish fishermen and everyone else involved in the sector. That is what this is all about. It is a difficult job. The Minister of State is relatively new to the job. He has only being doing it for 13 or 14 months. I wish him well in his efforts. If there is anything we can do, we should all fight together to do it.

I am not an expert on the European Court of Human Rights, but would it be worth our while taking a case before that court? We should leave no stone unturned when it comes to this matter. We will support the Minister of State in every way we can. I thank him for his work to date.

Deputy Johnny Mythen

I know the Minister of State is doing his best, but it does not take a genius to recognise that the fisheries of Ireland have been sold down the swanny. The latest cuts to Irish fishing quotas constitute the straw that will break the camel's back. With a massive cut of 57,000 tonnes, estimated to be valued at €94 million, and an overall loss of €200 million to the industry, how can the fishing sector and small coastal communities survive this huge drop in income and the loss of jobs that will directly follow?

Irish fishers need the Government to create a suite of financial supports as a matter of urgency. Why is the Government not mounting a legal challenge to the blocking of the Hague preferences and referring the matter to the European Court of Justice? The Hague preferences agreements have stood for over 50 years. They bona fide agreements under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. As mentioned before, big five companies are monopolising and making millions from our waters by means of the use of trawlers measuring between 80 m and 145 m in length. Some of these vessels are capable of catching 400 tonnes of fish a day. The companies involved have a combined fleet of approximately 230 of these vessels and roughly 400 subsidiaries worldwide. If that is not market dominance, then nothing is.

Surely the Minister of State must have the power to summon the Commissioner, on behalf of the people, to challenge the activities of such oligarchs under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 101 of which prohibits anti-competitive cartels from fixing market sharing. Article 102, the anti-monopoly rule, of the treaty prohibits companies with a dominant position from abusing it to the detriment of competition or consumers. Under the mergers regulation, No. 139/2004, the EU Commissioner can review or block mergers that impede competition and strengthen dominant players in the market.

These are some of the tools the Minister of State can and must use to save our fishing and coastal communities. My county of Wexford has many such communities, like those in Wexford Harbour, Kilmore, Rosslare, Slade and Duncannon, which represent hundreds of years of fishing traditions. The Minister of State must listen to the fishing industry and the Seafood Ireland Alliance and implement the fishing industry's eight-point plan to avoid the collapse of our country's fishing and marine industries before we sell off enough of Ireland to be but strangers in it.

Deputy Michael Collins

I was at a funeral recently. What happened there kind of summed matters up very easily. I was going along the queue and shaking hands with people. There was a fishermen at the end of the queue. What we said to me - even though I knew it, it shocked me to the core - was, "Thanks very much. Can I just say one thing to you? One day out - quota caught. Jesus, it's over." There was no point in me saying anything different. I shuddered when I heard those words. Hearing them was like getting a slap in the face with a shovel. The person to whom I refer said he was a fisherman; I knew he was anyway.

The Irish fishing industry, or what is left of it, is being pushed to the wall. Every fisherman in the country knows that. These are the facts, and they are grim. We watched and listened as our Government and then the Minister handed over huge amounts of quota during Brexit. We watched as the French so-called negotiator, Barnier, did a massive deal for his country while our fishermen were left shocked at the deal they got, which was delivered to them on Christmas Eve. I warned the Taoiseach at the time, but he did not listen. In the Dáil in October 2025, I spelt out the warnings clearly. The scientific advice coming from ICES was not just a tap on the shoulder; it was a sledgehammer. ICES recommended a 70% cut in the mackerel quota and big cuts in blue whiting, boarfish, whitefish and haddock quotas. I said that if those cuts went through, it would make life economically impossible for pelagic operators. That was not speculation; it was what I stated outright in the Dáil at the time.

While these cuts were landing like blows, the reality in places like Castletownbere was laid bare. Seventeen Irish boats were permanently decommissioned. Gone for good. Meanwhile, the roads into the town were being torn up by fleets of Spanish trucks hauling massive catches from the south west. Those catches were taken from waters in which Irish boats should be able to fish. This is a grotesque mockery. Cork County Council's job is to keep the roads in good condition for the Spanish trucks to take Irish fish out of our waters in Castletownbere. That is a sad fact. Go up to Castletownbere and you will see that parts of the road have collapsed several times. That is exactly what has happened.

This is not the only issue I have highlighted. At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I said that more problems would arise. Other EU countries were getting fuel subsidies at the time for their fleets; Irish fishermen did not get these because we did not apply. Why bother? It is one thing on top of the other. There is no explanation or justification; just the simple fact that Ireland has not secured the same support for its fleet that other EU nations obtained for theirs.

Then there is the weighing system. The current regime forces random weighing at the quayside, which leads to inaccurate numbers, especially for by-catches. Those wrong numbers feed into our already squeezed national quotas. This activity damages the demersal fleet. That is only one side of it. There are bigger, long-running issues that keep coming up. For example, I have been asking here about Rockall but nothing is happening. On the Hague preferences, we all know they are not worth a damn any more. There is Ireland's shrinking share of quota, despite the size and richness of our waters. These are not small details. I have repeatedly raised all these matters because they directly affect both jobs and survival in coastal towns. When the Dáil held a marathon fisheries debate, I and multiple other TDs outlined the crisis in detail. The message was the same: the situation is at breaking point. We highlighted EU quota cuts, the pressure on the whitefish fleet, the warnings about mackerel stock, the economic threat to processors and who can get raw materials. These all add up. The debate made it clear that the industry is not just struggling; it is fighting for its life.

When people talk about investment in harbours or marine vision strategies, which are always welcome, fishermen are not fooled. None of that puts quota back in Irish hands. None of that reopens lost fisheries. None of that reverses years of policies and negotiations that have left Ireland with some of the richest waters in Europe, yet a fleet tied up to the pier watching foreign ships take the fish. That is the plain truth of it. Fishermen do not want spin, more committees or to hear yet another line about ongoing discussions. They want fair access to their own waters. They are currently being denied that. They want the same supports other EU fleets are getting. They want a weighing system that does not punish them for things they did not do. They want a Government that goes to Brussels and fights with the same determination as those of other countries. Every quota cut, closed fishery or decommissioned boat means another family put under pressure, another community hollowed out and another coastal town losing the very thing that has kept it alive for generations.

The message has already been laid out in the Dáil, at the committees and in every report and debate. The Irish fishing industry - what is left of it - cannot take any more.

Ireland holds some of the richest fishing grounds in Europe, yet the people living and working beside those waters are not experiencing the benefits. If the industry is to have a future, the concerns repeatedly raised in the Oireachtas must be met, and should have been met, with direct and meaningful solutions that protect livelihoods, sustain communities and ensure that Ireland's marine resources are managed in a fair and balanced way.

One question that I asked after this recent hammer blow is whether there is going to be a legal review. The Hague preferences were there to protect us, but that did not happen. Is there going to be a legal review? Yes or no. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could answer that.

What are these fishermen, who have spent their lives working on the sea, supposed to do? They are employing many people. If there is no fishing, there are no jobs. Most of these people are not qualified to do anything else but go to sea. What does the Minister of State suggest they do? I acknowledge that the Minister of State travels to coastal communities, which is always welcome, but what is he bringing with him? Did he go back to get more quota or are the big Danish fleets still stripping our waters?

Deputy Paul Lawless

I want to say clearly here in the Dáil that fishermen are the backbone of these rural, coastal economies. They are fundamentally important. If we get rid of them, if we lose them, and they are on the brink, what will become of these coastal towns? What will become of our fishermen? What will become of this wonderful intergenerational industry? What will become of the skill sets that we have built up for so many years? The Minister of State knows that this is fundamentally important.

With Brexit, the Government sold the fishermen down the line. The Hague preferences came, and they were sold down the line. Now, they are teetering on the brink. I have met many fishermen in Erris, Belmullet and Achill Island. They have said to me very clearly that they do not know if they will survive. They do not know if they can wait until they get a reprieve or until their quotas are lifted. They may be gone. One gentleman asked me what there is for him to stay for. That is what is happening. If we break that link, it will be gone for generations.

It is fundamentally important that the inshore fishermen are fairly represented on the Government task force. Inshore fisheries make up 90% of the vessels and the vast majority of employment in the fishing industry. Fishermen are very concerned that they will not get a fair shake in relation to the task force.

There are negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy. I believe it is unfair that fishermen are completely locked out of this. I ask the Minister of State to look into this with regard to the next CAP. He will be the Minister of State during this period. It is fundamentally important that fishermen can receive supports. It is hard to believe that farmers who have assets and are very successful business people are receiving CAP payments, while fishermen are asked to provide their bank account details in the Department's own survey. They are struggling to survive and struggling to sustain all of the costs of the fishing industry. How is that fair? The answer is that it is not fair. I ask the Minister of State to do everything he can, until we can ramp up the quotas, to protect the fishermen who still exist in Mayo and across this country.

Deputy Albert Dolan

Our fishing industry is not just an economic sector, but a backbone of many coastal communities. In 2026, those communities are facing an extraordinary challenge - a 70% reduction in mackerel, a 41% reduction in blue whiting and a 22% reduction in boarfish. These cuts are based on advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and were formalised at December's Agricultural and Fisheries Council. We have to be clear. The science is not the problem. The science reflects years of overfishing by certain third countries. Ireland is paying the price for unsustainable decisions made elsewhere. We will continue to press at an EU level for strong action, which we need to do, including the use of the unsustainable fishing regulation where necessary. Ireland cannot stand by idly while shared stocks are jeopardised.

I want to place a focus and emphasis on what the Government is doing to support fishing families and coastal communities going forward. While the stocks recover, livelihoods have to be protected. I welcome that budget 2026 provided for €157 million to support fisheries and the marine sector. We have to continue to implement the €258 million seafood development programme under the European maritime, fisheries and aquaculture fund. It has to be said that this funding is not just abstract. It supports vessel modernisation, safety improvements, harbour infrastructure, processing competitiveness, environmental sustainability and young entrants into the industry. It is vital. Some €27 million has been allocated for capital projects in publicly owned harbours in 2026, and I welcome this investment. The Food Vision seafood sector group has been established to develop a structured financial support framework for catching, aquaculture and processing. A final support plan needs to be delivered by the end of the summer. That work is critical, and I commend the Minister of State on it.

The impact of quota reductions is not confined to vessels at sea. It flows directly into processing plants, ice plants, transport operators, engineering firms, fuel suppliers and small businesses in coastal towns. If we allow processing capacity to decline during a temporary biological downturn, rebuilding it later will be far more difficult. That is why these supports need to focus not only on survival, but on maintaining strategic capacity in our industry. We have to remain committed to exploring incentives to encourage landing in Irish ports, examining taxation supports for the sector, supporting diversification in coastal economies, strengthening agriculture and streamlining licensing. At an EU level, negotiations need to be had for the next multi-annual financial framework. When that begins, Ireland needs to advocate strongly for ring-fenced funding for fisheries under the Common Fisheries Policy.

Our coastal communities need certainty, not an annual sense of instability. Even in a difficult year, Ireland's fishing opportunities still amount to approximately 120,000 tonnes, with an estimated first-sale value of over €200 million. This is a sector with strength and resilience, but there is a fear that it really is being tested this year. It is of paramount importance that the Government understands that when fisheries suffer, entire communities around them suffer. I ask that we defend sustainability, demand fairness at an EU level, provide practical supports at home and ensure there is a viable future for the next generation of Irish fishers. Fisheries cannot be just about quota. They are about families, heritage and the economic survival of coastal Ireland in the counties that we represent, like Clare and Galway.

Deputy Erin McGreehan

It is great to have this debate in the House. As the Minister of State knows, fishing is a very important industry for County Louth. It is a working industry, from Carlingford Lough right up to Port Oriel and at all the small landing points along our coast. These businesses are employing local people, sustaining families and contributing directly to the regional and national economy.

The reality is that, in many ways, we have let down our fisheries in this country, and that is exactly how our fishing communities feel. I understand that sentiment. We have seen Irish boats tied up while foreign vessels continue to fish waters that Irish fishermen have depended on for generations. We have seen intergenerational fishing businesses disappear, not because of a lack of willingness to work but because of a lack of fairness, certainty and confidence in the system.

Stocks must be protected. That is not optional. Sustainable management is essential. However, sustainability without equity is not sustainable in any meaningful sense whatsoever. Irish fishermen are asked to comply with quota reductions of almost 70% in key species like mackerel. Those reductions are based on scientific advice. They must be respected, but they must be respected by everyone, not just by Irish vessels and the small inshore fleets, but by all vessels operating in Irish waters.

The problem is that confidence in enforcement remains weak. I have spoken to many fishermen in Clogherhead. They are exhausted and feel incredibly disheartened by what they see going on in our waters. The Minister of State will hear from them in a couple of weeks when he visits Louth. Parliamentary replies have confirmed that landings have, in some instances, exceeded scientific recommendations, and that investigations and prosecutions are limited relative to the scale of the industry.

That undermines confidence. It creates a perception and, in some cases, a reality that compliance is uneven. We need far better focus on monitoring and enforcement. We need proper inspection of catches at landing, secure and tamper-proof vessel monitoring systems, and oversight of what is being caught, landed and exported. We also need proper enforcement of crew regulations. All crews must be legally employed. All licensing conditions must be respected. The law cannot be selectively applied. There must also be oversight and management of our harbours and piers. Abandoned or derelict vessels create safety risks, obstruct access and reflect a wider failure of oversight. If we are serious about managing our maritime infrastructure, we must police and maintain it properly. This is not about over-regulation but about enforcing the laws we already have.

Irish fishermen and fisherwomen are not looking for special treatment. They are looking for fairness, consistency and a level playing field. They cannot compete if foreign vessels benefit from access while Irish quota shrinks. They cannot plan for the future if enforcement is inconsistent, and they cannot sustain intergenerational business in an environment of uncertainty.

The fishermen of Carlingford Lough, Port Oriel and right along the coast of County Louth operate in difficult conditions. They comply with regulations. They contribute to our communities. They are not asking for guarantees but they are entitled to fairness and to proper protection for their industry. I know the Minister of State agrees with all of this, and that we need sustainable and equitable fisheries management. That means protecting fish stocks, enforcing quotas, policing our waters effectively and ensuring that Irish fisheries are not placed at a structural disadvantage in their own waters. We must take advantage of our EU Presidency this summer to secure target supports specifically for our fishing industry. That is not an unreasonable expectation but a basic responsibility of the State.

Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan

I strongly welcome that time has been allocated to speak on the changes to the fishing quota, which will simply decimate our coastal communities. I come from a farming background, not a fishing one, but to me the parallels between these communities are clear. There is the same resilience, the same connection to the land and the sea, and the same feeling of being taken for granted. The recurring trend I am seeing time and again is a failure by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to stand up for our fishing and farming communities when it truly matters. We see it over and over from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We get all the rhetoric, the promises of standing up for these communities, but when it comes to action to take a real stand, they are nowhere to be seen. The decision by the Netherlands, Germany, France and Poland to block the Hague preferences goes against the very essence of the European Union, the principles of mutual co-operation and respect for other member states. This was not just a policy disagreement; it was a fundamental betrayal of solidarity. Where was an Taoiseach? Where was the strong, visible leadership to stand up for Ireland's interests after that disgraceful decision?

For decades, our coastal communities have been suffering death by a thousand cuts. Make no mistake, the new quotas are nothing like the cuts before. They gut what is left of Irish fisheries and leave only bones behind. How much longer will the Government stand idly by as third-country vessels operate brazenly in our waters, overfishing with few if any consequences? Our marine resources are being plundered before our eyes.

EU policies have failed our coastal communities, just as they are now failing our farmers. The outsourcing of our primary food production seems to be the driving force of EU policy at the moment. This race to the bottom benefits no one but our competitors. We and our EU partners should be striving to build strong, resilient and self-sufficient food industries, just as we have built world-class beef and dairy sectors. We should be working towards a meaningful level of self-sufficiency in fisheries and across other agrifood sectors. Given the global insecurities of the present moment, the volatility and the uncertainty, this is more important than ever. We cannot stand by while the hawks in Brussels raid the CAP budget, with money that should be supporting our farmers and rural communities to be wasted on arms and bombs. A safe and secure state is a healthy and vibrant state. We cannot have a healthy, vibrant state with harbours and farmlands lying empty. True security is about food security and control over our own resources. It is about ensuring that our coastal and rural communities do not just survive but thrive.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this very serious and important topic. Every one of us knows that Ireland is surrounded by water. We should and do own our waters and I cannot understand for the life of me how the UK is entitled to fish in the coastal waters that obtain to the 26 Counties. All up the west belongs to Southern Ireland up as far as the tip of Donegal. We should be entitled to fish it. How have they a say on us having to shed 23,000 jobs? What are these fellas going to live in? Will they live in the wind or the sea air? God almighty, people are so hard at it, and people cannot keep a roof over their head even if they are in work every day and night as well. This is hurting the whole community. It is hurting the shops, the service men, the garages and every sector of the coastal community. There was something serious wrong before this cut in the quotas at all. For the last three years, 2025, 2024 and 2023, no mackerel came into the villages of Kilgarvan or Kenmare. They are not to be seen and not to be had. Who is taking them? Where are they going? Why is it being allowed? Have we anyone who can shout "stop"?

We hear now that because of the EU Presidency, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade is going to bulk up our Army or whatever it is. I do not know what that is for. These people are down on their knees. They went out bad days and good days to try to bring home a bit of a living and to keep food on the table, all the way from Castletownbere, in to Kenmare and out to the Iveragh Peninsula, all the way along the Dingle Peninsula and up to the mouth of the Shannon Estuary. The Minister of State spoke about a task force. I do not know what good this task force is going to do but I ask the Minister of State to do something, please. This is his time. He is the Minister of State with responsibility for the fisheries. I am calling him out now because we had fellas there before who did not do their job. He is there this time and he has a chance to do something about it. I ask him to seriously get down to work.

Deputy Barry Heneghan

First, I thank the Minister of State for the investment in Howth Harbour as part of the fishery harbour and coastal infrastructure development programme. It is great to see him out on the northside again and it is great to see that investment in safety works. He knows how much dredging and accessibility will help the fishermen and coastal community that I represent. The fishermen, marine workers and the wider community were very grateful to see the Minister of State there. However, I am seeking clarity on what he announced. Will the Syncrolift in Howth, which is more than 40 years old, be included? It is critical that the fishermen know if it will be. On dredging and silt removal broadly, will this also be included in other areas of Dublin Bay where sand is building up and creating a much greater risk?

On fisheries, I have a similarity to Deputy Healy-Rae. My grandfather was in Ballinskelligs as a fisherman over 80 years ago. He spoke to my family about the amazing work that was done there. That industry is really on its knees. Deputy Healy-Rae would not think he would have me here shouting for Kerry but I am here now.

During the election, I was endorsed by Seán "Dublin Bay" Loftus's family. I had them in to the Dáil last week and it was brilliant to talk to them. They spoke about Rockall and how their father hung out of an airplane screaming that it is Irish. Is there any update on the current status of Rockall, in Ireland's maritime interests? I have heard multiple Deputies talk about enforcement in our seas. I also recently submitted a parliamentary question in regard to the Defence Forces being properly resourced to defend key ports and monitor vessels travelling through Irish territorial waters. I would like the Minister of State to follow that up with the Minister for Defence. We need clarity on what is happening off our coasts to ensure we have the capacity to monitor them.

We need cross-departmental support to ensure we have the capacity to monitor them. We have enormous economic and environmental potential with ORE and everything else being built off our coasts. We need to have the resources to properly monitor it. Regarding communities like Howth, the investment is welcome but we need clarity on what that money will be used for so we know how to support fishermen, protect our coastlines and ensure Ireland makes the most of the opportunity. One of the most frustrating things for members of the public is when they see potential not utilised whether that is ORE, fisheries or renewable energy, it all comes together in the sense that we need proper supports to additionally resource them.

Deputy Timmy Dooley

I genuinely thank everybody who participated in the debate today. There will be differences between us politically and some will seek to make political points. I fully understand; I know how that works but they are here because they care about the various communities they represent which, some greater than others, have a stake in the fishing industry. There are other counties that do not. We even had Deputy Maxwell who is from an inland county but has an interest in it. I appreciate the level of engagement and debate and the genuine understanding of the challenges the sector is facing. There is a historical context to all of this which some are more familiar with than others. In relation to the establishment of the quota available to Ireland, some of it relates to our track record and history and when we joined the European Union. I know it is a burden on the minds of a lot of people who say we have fish in our waters, other people can fish them, why should we not be finishing them principally. When we entered the European Union our waters became a shared resource of the European Union. Somebody made the point and it is often made to me by members of my own family, how is it that Belgium with a relatively small coastline has such a fishing opportunity in Irish waters particularly the Irish Sea for monkfish and others? Your fishing effort in the past, historically, and your boats in the water prior to joining the Union had nothing to do with how much coastline you had; it was how those citizens established an opportunity and went out and fished. There is no correlation. Until you get into that conversation, it seems like, God, how did Ireland fall asleep at the wheel. Historically, there are countries with relatively small amounts of coastline who are mariners at heart and had been commercially fishing. They were explorers back in the day, etc.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Colonialists.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Timmy Dooley)

We could be here a long time if we got into that. They were ahead of the game in establishing their fishing rights and they were grandfathered in to the agreements that came. We are working off the back foot. When we joined the European Union our sector was very small and underdeveloped. It has done well. Some really great ingenuity went into it around the coastline in particular the pelagics and in other areas. They have really developed and now they are hit with the quota reductions. It is one thing having a quota but when the quota gets reduced then you are on the back foot. We fought hard on the Hagues. A couple of people spoke about the Hagues and whether we will take legal action. We are still waiting for the Office of the Attorney General to peruse that in detail. I was very upfront and direct previously - a case not dissimilar was litigated previously in the ECJ. It was found that the decision in relation not so much to the invoking of the Hagues but whether or not they are accepted it is a matter for the Council. The Council decided with a blocking minority to prevent them from going ahead. That decision is taken so it is hard to see a legal pathway. I do not want to be the one responsible for putting a further financial burden on the State taking a case until we see there is a pathway through or a possibility. If there is any chink there, we will certainly go after it. I am regularly in contact with other member states. We are trying to find diplomatic ways to engage with each other to see if come next year there is a less hostile environment. It is not obvious at the minute but we will keep all of that on the agenda. The work continues to get the allowable catch agreed by the end of March. We are hopeful there will be some positive in that for us. Positive would be an allowable catch agreed by all the parties - coastal states and the European Union - which we can stand over scientifically and leads to sustainability because that is critical. We cannot have a situation where we mind the fish and do everything right and others which have 80% of the opportunity operate with raw abandon. There is no point then in us then being best in class because it will not work. We have work to do in that regard.

A couple of other issues were raised. I have addressed some at committee previously. The SFPA regularly comes up for discussion. I cannot interfere with the SFPA. It goes before the committee and has a role there. It is like An Garda Síochána - Ministers do not engage on individual issues but there is work that can be done. Having had a number of engagements with the SFPA over the past number of months and hearing the response in here, there is a recognition that the activities of the past of a different generation of fishermen have changed and perhaps the SFPA in its terms and conditions or the way it views the world has to align with that. We have to try to build a culture of trust between the two sides but at the same time be clear that the SFPA has a legal mandate which it has to protect, which it is doing. There could be an engagement there. There is work that can be done in terms of the rules and regulations. I take the point - the Killybegs one is particularly arduous in the guesstimation of what is in the hold of the boat. You do the guesstimation based on all the principles and if it turns out to be a mismatch with what ultimately goes through the factory, which is all recorded anyway, there is a price to pay. I have not been able to figure out how that makes sense. We have work to do on it and we will. I want to encourage that. The SFPA was before the committee previously and I do not think it worked very well. The SFPA will have to look at its engagement with the committee in its understanding of what the committee does and seeks to represent. Perhaps then the committee will understand, if it is fair and open, what the SFPA has to do. The committee now provides that opportunity. I would like to see more open dialogue not in relation to individual cases but on how we can improve things while retaining the rules, regulations and protections. If rules and regulations become undermined and are not properly enforced, we will end up in a situation with the auditors at European level holding the Government to account. I know that is not what fishermen want. They have seen the way things have developed and the systems now in place such as electronic tracking. We have taken a decision to proceed with the designation of Killybegs but we now have to go through a process of some further equipment that needs to be put in place which we are working on.

A good few people spoke about how we managed to get from here to the other side in terms of the reduction of quota. Others have rightly asked if it is going to be another task force that will talk shop. I have given it a time limit, stripped it back to the bare in what it needs to do and proposals need to come out of it. It will need to get a framework of financial supports. I made it clear to the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste from the start that this will need ring-fenced funding to assist in getting through. I have no doubt when it is published we will be here again and it will never meet the expectations of the other side of the House. I understand that. That is the way it should be. There should be that tension here to keep all our feet to the fire in trying to achieve the best we can for all concerned. My view is we have three to five years of trying to hold the industry through a difficult period to get the conservation measures in place and then hope to see a recovery in the stock, hoping it is not overly based on climate change and the fish have not moved further north or out of our waters.

Issues about bluefin tuna were mentioned. There is an evaluation of the CFP due to be published before June at the end of the Cypriot Presidency.

I am hopeful if there is a review thereafter - the evaluation and then the review - that it is at a time like that where we can look at other potential opportunities on quota. The Deputy is right. Bluefin is coming into our waters with great regularity. There was talk about representation for the inshore guys who are primarily guys, or gentlemen. We ensure they are fairly represented. There are six of the inshore guys represented on that. We have to look at that separately. There are a lot individuals, small communities and small boats involved. We have to look for a medium- and longer-term support structure for them too.

An Ceann Comhairle

I thank the Minister of State very much. That concludes statements on fishing quotas.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Tuesday, 24 Feb 2026

Fishing Quotas: Statements

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 24 Feb 2026