Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-16
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy for raising what is a very important issue. I agree with him that what happened in Brussels last week was absolutely unacceptable in terms of the pulling back of the Hague preferences. The situation is far more grave than that, however.
In terms of the overall issue, it was on scientific advice that the Council based its decisions. The Deputy is familiar with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, report, in which the scientific advice was, in essence, for a reduction of 70% in the total allowable catch for mackerel - that is existential for the pelagic fleet - a 41% reduction in respect of blue whiting and a 22% reduction in respect of boarfish. These are devastating losses for our fishing community, with consequential issues for seafood sector, for processing downstream and for coastal communities that are dependent on jobs arising from that.
The issue of unsustainable fishing of key pelagic stock such as mackerel by certain coastal states outside the European Union has been raised by Ireland repeatedly. We have, through the AGRIFISH Council, called for urgent European action to save the north-east Atlantic pelagic stocks. Again, Europe needs to negotiate far more strongly in terms of sending a clear message that actions that threaten the sustainability of our shared stocks are not acceptable to the European Union. There needs to be a concerted response. The Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, travelled to all the capitals and worked extremely hard. The Minister, Deputy Heydon, was there with the Minister of State at the time. I met with all the major fishing organisations last week or the week before last.
What we have to do now is develop our approach. Today, the Government took a decision to establish a task force with the industry to come back to us in the first quarter of next year in terms of how we, nationally, can support our fishers and create a sustainable pathway over the next number of years. We intend to re-engage regarding our limitations under existing state aid rules. Given the existential nature of this hit to the Irish fishing industry, we will have to respond in a strong way in terms of financially supporting our fishers over the next number of years. Approximately €102 million is involved, and that does not take account, as the Deputy said, of the impacts on the value chain in the seafood sector for fish processes and ancillary services. That is also an issue of significant concern. The Hague preferences would have accounted for somewhere between €13 million and €18 million of that €102 million, so it is a much bigger issue, notwithstanding the unacceptable nature of the decision of other member states not to facilitate the granting of the Hague preferences. We will work now with the industry with a view to designing a package and a framework to create a sustainable future for Irish fishing.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:28+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-16