Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue on Tuesday (10 January) today met fishing industry representatives at the Marine Institute in Galway and discussed the negotiations ongoing this week, between the EU and Norway, on a fisheries agreement.

The minister said: “Our interests relate to blue whiting and the level of the transfer of blue whiting quota to Norway to pay for other fishing opportunities that the EU is seeking and the level of access to EU waters which, in practice, involves fishing in Ireland’s 200 miles zone. These negotiations will recommence on Wednesday. The discussions with Irish industry representatives today were very useful and enabled a full consideration of the issues and the negotiating options.”

He added that he is pleased a number of Irish fishing industry representatives will attend this round of negotiations in Brussels and will assist his team as talks progress.

“I am continuing to engage directly with Commissioner Sinkevicious, EU Commissioner for Fisheries and the Environment to ensure that he understands Ireland’s concerns and its priorities in these negotiations,” he said.

Minister McConalogue also used this opportunity to provide an update on the voluntary fishing fleet scrappage scheme as recommended by the Seafood Task Force.

The scheme was focussed at whitefish polyvalent and beam trawl vessels, with the objective of voluntarily removing 8,000 GT and 21,000 KW to rebalance the fleet and improve the viability of the remaining fleet by making available more quota to them.

The minister briefed the industry that due to the level of interest from vessel owners, and the calculations from Bord Iascaigh Mhara on the levels of direct payments required to meet the objective of the scheme, that an increase in budget was required.

Additional funds have been successfully sought from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and an updated EU State Aid approval has been secured, he added.

“In order to ensure that all fishers who wished to take part in the scheme could do so and that the targets set by the Task Force could be delivered, I have increased the budget for direct payments under the scheme from €60 million to a maximum of €75 million with tax reliefs increasing proportionately,” the minister said.

“Offers for voluntary decommissioning will now be made to 57 vessel owners and the decommissioning of those vessels will make available an extra €34 million in quota for the remainder of the whitefish fleet improving their profitability and securing the future of the fleet.

“I am satisfied that I have now enabled all those who have chosen to apply for this scheme receive the full value of the scheme payment as guided by the Seafood Task Force recommendation.”

Minister Charlie McConalogue met on Friday (23 September) with representatives of the broad seafood sector covering the fishing fleet, aquaculture and processing, providing an update on progress on the implementation of the recommendations of the Seafood Task Force.

Minister McConalogue said: “I set out how each of the main support schemes recommended by the Seafood Task Force are progressing including the €24 million voluntary tie-up scheme for the fishing fleet which continues to the end of November, the €60 million voluntary decommissioning scheme which commenced in early September, the €45 million processing capital, the €20 million aquaculture growth schemes which opened at the end of August and the €25 million Blue Economy Enterprise Scheme and the Fisheries Co-operative Transition Scheme.

“I listened to the requests from the sector to progress quickly the remaining schemes provided for in the task Fforce report and I undertook to work to progress consideration of these proposals with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the EU State Aid approval processes.”

The seafood sector also explained the challenges they are facing with the high cost of fuel and energy prices and asked for additional supports across all elements of the sector.

“I am very aware of the challenges being faced by the seafood sector arising from the increased costs of marine fuel and of energy,” the minister said. “I advised that I have made clear the position that the seafood sector must be supported under any business supports provided in the upcoming Budget.

“I also undertook to continue to monitor the situation and in particular the fuel costs, which have stabilised albeit at a higher level than Quarter 1 2022 prices. The current ongoing extensive supports under the task force are targeted at addressing the impacts of Brexit taking account of the current situation. I will continue to monitor and assess the situation over the coming period and keep all available options under active consideration.”

There was also in-depth discussion on the upcoming negotiations with the UK on setting whitefish quotas for 2023 and negotiations with the maritime states of the UK, Norway, Faroe Islands and Iceland on the management, sharing and quota setting for the mackerel stock and arrangements for the blue whiting fishery in 2023.

Organisations attending the meeting were the Irish South and East Fish Producer Organisation, Irish Fish Producer Organisations, Irish South and West Fishermen’s Organisation, Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation, Irish Island’s Marine Resource Producer Organisation, National Inshore Fisheries Forum, Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Organisation and IFA Aquaculture. Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Marine Institute also attended.

The meeting came two days after a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture heard that aquaculture businesses in Ireland will “no longer be profitable” without significant supports to cope with “spiralling input costs”, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.