Conor D McGuinness Demands Emergency Support for Inshore Fleet

Comhairle again, I put this question on behalf of my colleague, Pádraig McLaughlin, who is otherwise detained this morning. Minister, Ireland's inshore fishing fleet is facing an emergency. Rising costs, shrinking quotas, climate-driven weather losses are pushing family fishing businesses to the brink, and the National Inshore Fishermen's Association, NIFA, has produced a practical, affordable proposal for an inshore fishery stabilisation and climate adaption scheme. Minister, do you consider now it's maybe time to stop commissioning further reports and commit to working directly with NIFA to deliver targeted supports before more boats leave our harbours and are tied up? Minister, I've met with the National Inshore Fishermen's Association and indeed other representatives of the inshore sector, and I'm very aware of the challenges facing the inshore fishery sector, and I'm taken by their resilience and their capacity to manage through really difficult times, so I'm fully aware of the concerns raised. However, Ireland's £258 million seafood development programme, which is currently in place since 2021 and extends out to 2027, which is co-funded by the government and the EU Commission under the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, is the primary source of funding for the Irish commercial seafood sector, including the inshore sector. Our department has reviewed all funding mechanisms available, either through the seafood development programme itself or through other state aid routes, to ascertain if there is a possibility to introduce a financial stabilisation scheme for inshore fishermen. Ireland, as an EU member state, is required to comply with the state aid regulations, and the European Commission oversees the application of state aid rules among member states. Failure to comply with state aid rules, such as a failure to provide notification to the European Commission, or implementing the aid without approval, can result in the member state being required to cover any aid provided. These rules also provide for added interest to be applied. Article 107 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union defines state aid as any aid granted by a member state or through state resources in any form whatsoever which distorts or threatens to distort competition by favouring certain undertakings or the production of certain goods. Articles under 107.2 and 107.3 provide for exemptions where state aid can be compatible with the internal market, such as aid to promote regional economic development as well as research and innovation. Most state aid has the potential to disrupt trade within the EU. So, as the managing authority for the MFAF programme in Ireland, there is a range of projects that industry supports to the inshore sector, provided by agencies of the Department under the programme. These include small-scale coastal fisheries schemes, inshore fisheries conservation schemes, that's the V-notching programme, seafood training scheme and seafood capacity building scheme. In addition to the above, a scheme specified for the inshore fleet was implemented between 2024 and 2025 under the Seafood Development Programme. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Deputy? Minister, I expected that you would refer to state aid rules and how they might prevent this, but I don't believe that argument stands up. I want to acknowledge the work of NIFA and the inshore sector in producing these reports. Indeed, they appear before the Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Committee and have engaged with Flodrig MacLachlan and others for a long time. But the truth is the industry is in crisis. It's been under pressure for many years. There's a level of deterioration. And you know that the European Commission can approve a derogation on state aid rules. In fact, they've done it for the vessel fuel supports. They've done it in many other cases. I believe if this were affecting another primary producing sector, if this were impacting dairy, tillage, beef production, I think that the government would have sought that derogation already. But because it's fishermen, because it's the inshore sector in particular, we're pre-empting what the Commission may say to us if we were to ask. But I think you need to not hide behind what the Commission may say and actually go and argue, make the case for a derogation on state aid rules. So that this urgent financial assistance can be provided. And if that means declaring an emergency, owning up to the fact that this sector is in crisis and calling it an emergency, then let's do that. Thanks very much, Deputy. I'm fully aware, but in the direct answer to your question, I wanted to set out the parameters under which any future decisions might be taken or any future work to be done. And I have engaged and I will continue to engage, as you know, with your committee in that regard. We have a very clear policy position to support the inshore sector. And that's why by October of this year, there will be a total ban of trawling within the six mile limit of vessels above 18 metres to ensure the improved viability of the inshore sector. So it's not as if the government, Minister Hayden and I, and Minister Collins are standing back from our responsibility here. We do recognise there's a crisis. We're doing everything within our powers. And we haven't at all ruled out the possibility of putting a case to the European Union or to the Commission in due course. But that has to be appropriately thought through, has to be appropriately structured. And as you know, we have appointed an independent chair under the Seafood Programme, Food Vision Programme, Michael Berkery, to do a full analysis of market conditions as a result of quota loss, etc. When that report comes through, we'll be making further determinations on that particular report. Minister, I also need to note the publication of the Mulvey report this week. It is underwhelming. And there is not an expectation in the sector that the Berkery report will move this on much further. But that remains to be seen. My call to you, Minister, is that you and this government accept that the inshore sector is facing an emergency. And based on that, go and make the case now to Brussels. Because there is work that can be done in other aspects in terms of quota, in terms of access, in terms of a fair proportion of fishing opportunity. But this is about keeping the industry afloat now. This is an industry that's on its knees, that has been facing a slow deterioration as a result of policy and as a result of inequity driven by Brussels over many, many years. But it is now at a point where it may never return. We may lose our inshore sector unless they get direct financial assistance. It's important to note as well, Cahir, look, on the record, that this is a sector that never came looking for anything from the state, only fair access to our waters. And now when they come looking, they're told, well, no, wait for the second report, wait, and we might make a case to Europe. Like I said, if this were any other primary producing sector, you would be over in Brussels now making that case for a derogation. That needs to happen, Minister. Thanks very much. Just the point would be that the Berkeley report will be published very shortly. That report was guided by the exceptional crisis resulting from the significant loss in quota as a result of the scientific advice of last year. So that's the direct response there. The Mulvey report was broad based to ascertain where the sector was at, which had a very different requirement from it. So what's happening at European level at the minute, there was an evaluation done of the common fisheries policy. It would be our preferred option that that would move now to a significant review of the CFP. And it's in that context that a European agreement can be reached in relation to addressing certain crises. Ireland just putting a proposal on its own without the support of other member states, from my experience and that of Minister Hayden, we would feel that that may not land in the way that we'd want. It's not about just making a request without having the homework done. So it requires quite a bit of negotiation so that we'd have broader support across the union in order to affect those changes that would be necessary in the common fisheries policy to address the kind of requests that are coming, which I fully understand the basis for that request and fully understand the need to address the viability of the insurer sector.