Yesterday.
Dail Eireann, Dublin 2,.
The Minister for Agriculture and Marine Charlie McConalogu is considering initiating a review of the national mackerel quota, which was described by Social Democrats Agriculture Spokesperson Holly Cairns as a “very blatant unfair policy” to inshore fishers.
Minister McConalogue said any decision to change the national mackerel quota would “require a very significant and comprehensive public consultation process”.
Meanwhile, this morning…
…Deputy Cairns said:
“Currently, a paltry 2% of Ireland’s mackerel quota is assigned to vessels under 15 metres while 98% is assigned to just 50 larger boats. This massive disparity is not imposed by the EU, but by the Department of Agriculture – and it is making inshore fishing both unsustainable and unviable.
“Last year, small vessels were stopped from catching mackerel in June, when their meagre annual quota was reached. At the time, I asked Minister McConalogue to act but no help for inshore fishers was forthcoming. With just two months to go before quotas are again exhausted, the Minister must come forward with proactive solutions.
“The alternative is a repeat of last year’s scandalous situation whereby even the operators of the smallest of vessels, who are barely getting by, were not permitted to catch a few dozen mackerel to sell at local farmers’ markets.
“It is entirely within the Minister’s authority to adjust the quota allocation. Even a marginal change, from 2% to 4%, would make a huge difference to inshore fishers and still leave larger vessels with 96% of the catch.
“Existing government policy contradicts Article 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy, which states the allocation of quota must be based on the environment; social and economic benefits; and the policy preamble – which specifically states that small offshore islands, dependent on fishing, should be especially recognised to enable them to survive and thrive.”
Anyone?
Review of national mackerel quota considered, says Minister for Agriculture (RTE)
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Worst Minister for Ag in recent memory – he must know his seat is gone at this stage
Several boat charter tours had to close last year for good due to the quota issue – literally couldnt take a group out, catch ~10 mackerel and cook it on the boat because the quota was hit by megatrawlers. A joke
…its almost as if there was a pandemic and lockdown,were boat charter tours immune like ?
The price of EU Membership and governance by our powers at be
The difference between our politicians and mackerel is at least mackerel have a backbone
Sine we joined the EU our partners have taken over €300 billion of fish out of our waters
We got not even 10% of that in structural grants from the EU that built our infrastructure
Thanks to the EU agriculture policy our farming has been decimated and we now realise the importance of food security and our national resources
Let’s face it we cannot eat computer chips or plant data centres and our fertiliser industry in 2002 produced one fifth of the EUs total production of fertiliser
Now we see without Ukraine our farming is facing massive increases in prices as we now have to import it
This jack ass is just the latest of the line up of clueless ministers of agriculture
He only cares about the big money. Citizens mean nothing to these awful people. We can freeze, starve and go without a roof over our heads, as long as it doesn’t bother the big boys that’s ok.
Marine Charlie McConalogu.
French again.