Fishing Industry
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-19
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Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

The reality is there is an oligopoly at the heart of European fisheries. If the Government will not name the problem, others will. I am prepared to do so here under parliamentary privilege. I refer to the so-called big five Dutch-based corporations, namely, Parlevliet & van der Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family. Between them, they control an extraordinary share - almost 20% - of EU fishing effort. One in six fish caught in EU waters across the entire European Union is caught by one of these outfits. The actual number is likely much more; that is only what we know about. They exercise this control through use of a corporate maze, with vessels flagged across multiple member states and ownership structures that make meaningful transparency almost impossible. At the same time, as the Minister of State knows, these same interests are operating in non-EU waters, including off Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway, often in contexts where there are serious concerns about overfishing of our shared stocks in the north Atlantic, particularly in the pelagic sector. In effect, these corporations are ag imirt an dá thaobh. They are playing both sides of the system, influencing policy here while maximising profits everywhere.
Meanwhile, Irish fishermen are tying their boats to the harbour wall and coastal communities are being hollowed out. The Minister of State knows this as he has travelled to meet with them. We have a minuscule and utterly disproportionate share of quota in our own territorial waters. It is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-19