Donegal fishers face ‘Armageddon’ with mackerel quota to be slashed due to overfishing by neighbouring fleets and stock collapse

Transcript

00:00Irish fishing and seafood industry have received terrible news in the last week.

00:05There will be further devastating cuts to the mackerel quota, as well as the blue-whiten

00:09and boar fish.

00:11This has been referred to as economic Armageddon by the industry.

00:15My own constituency of Donegal is going to be hit really, really hard by this.

00:21The European Commission has known for many years now about the reckless overfishing of

00:26mackerel by fishing fleets from Norway, from Iceland, from the Faroes, from Russia and

00:31from Britain.

00:32Yet they have taken no meaningful action.

00:34There were no repercussions.

00:36Tanisha, what is your plan to secure our fair share of fish in our own waters?

00:42Is it acceptable, in your view and in the Government's view, that the fishing fleets from the countries

00:46who have recklessly overfished mackerel continue to fish in our waters?

00:51And are you finally going to stand up for Ireland and our fishing communities in the

00:55face of this economic Armageddon, as they call it?

00:58Thank you very much Deputy Doherty for raising this issue.

01:02I had the opportunity to visit Donegal myself in the not too recent past and met with some

01:06of the fishing organisations and fishermen in Killebegs.

01:09I know what a worrying time this is for people, as does Minister Hayden and Minister Dooley, who

01:14have specific responsibility for this.

01:17It is no doubt that the proposals are deeply concerning.

01:20They will significantly impact on the Irish seafood sector.

01:23Ireland has raised the overfishing of key stocks by some coastal states outside the EU repeatedly.

01:29Minister Dooley will now continue to highlight this critical issue for our fishers, but also

01:33to engage intently with the European Commission and other member states on possible actions

01:37that we can take to protect our stocks.

01:39I know the Minister met with concerned fishermen and women in Killebegs on Sunday, and I think

01:44he was also meeting relevant stakeholder groups yesterday.

01:46I have not had an opportunity to speak to him since then as well, but to gather input so

01:50that we can see how best to approach this together.

01:52I will ask that he keeps in touch with you and other interested members of this House.