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INTERVIEW: Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue on the future of Ireland’s seafood industry
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Why has Ireland’s aquaculture industry consistently failed to realise its full potential in production and employment?
We do have to work very hard at developing the potential of our aquaculture sector. I know there has been lots of frustration within the industry in recent years at its failure to develop all its potential, and I understand that.
Aquaculture is an exciting sector, and, as Minister, I will work hard to try to develop it. There has been a lot of challenges in recent years with delays in aquaculture licensing. Still, there has been a lot of progress about that recently.
I now want to see that progress accelerated and those remaining licensing issues dealt with and a good licensing framework and infrastructure in place. But, obviously, the situation of the last number of years where there have been so many challenges around renewing licences for existing sites has been an impediment to that.
In fairness, though, a lot of work has been done related to addressing those, especially in the shellfish sector. There is an increased focus now on trying to address the licensing backlog in finfish.
The licensing backlog has not only frustrated producers but has also hindered development and discouraged investment. So, what progress is being made?
A lot of effort, time and resources have been used to deal with the backlog in shellfish licensing backlog. Twelve hundred of those licences have been issued now, which has taken up a lot of the resources allocated to it. Thankfully, it is now in a much more positive space.
The focus will now be on putting the time and effort into dealing with licensing in the finfish sector. Thirty-seven marine finfish licence applications are currently on hand. However, at the request of the marine finfish farming sector, I recently extended the timeline for applicants to submit their environmental impact assessments by the end of June.
No aquaculture licence can be determined without an environmental impact assessment on hand and completed. The applicants themselves requested that additional time, and I hope that it will be the final extension. Eleven of those thirty-seven are currently being assessed. The previously dedicated resources to the shellfish sector are now focusing very much on the finfish sector. The critical task is to resolve and determine those.
An aquaculture licence in Ireland is for ten years. However, a Belgian mussel producer recently received a twenty-year licence. Would you consider extending the licence period to attract investment?
There are significant differences between the Belgian model and our own. For example, most of our applications tend to be in bays that would have designations, whereas the Belgian model would be different.
Twenty years is a long, long time. Indeed, a ten-
Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue TD
year aquaculture licence is a good one to give; it is a significant period in any business. However, it is more important to have an efficient and streamlined licensing system. I am confident in terms of the work and the new structures being put in place to have that. My objective as Minister is to ensure that the structures and process in place allow aquaculture licenses to be dealt with in a timely fashion.
Is the Aquaculture Licensing Appeals Board (ALAB) sufficiently resourced to manage the licencing backlog and process new applications?
We have seen some twelve hundred aquaculture licences issued in the period 2013-2014. Obviously, that led to a particular volume of appeals from applicants who were refused or indeed from objectors. And those that would have made observations and submissions appealing a successful decision to grant a licence.
I’m very conscious that there is a significant delay there, and something I want to try and resolve. In the same way that issuing an
initial licence is essential, having an appeals process that can deal with the volume is equally important. The volume at the moment is not representative of what probably would be there on an ongoing basis because of the fact that the backlog is not yet dealt with.
When I met with ALAB some weeks ago, I made my position clear as Minister that I would work with them to try and resource them as required to deal with the volume of work they have on hand. I want to support ALAB to ensure that the current delay can be addressed and got into a reasonable space where there is a more acceptable timeframe for appeals to be dealt with.
Fishing industry POs are angry and unhappy with the so-called Brexit fishing deal. They claim it will harm fishing and dependent coastal communities. They also claim a bad deal was accepted in the end because Irish fishing just was not important enough.
I don’t agree with that portrayal at all. Fishing is really important to Ireland and to Europe. And fishing was an essential part of the Brexit negotiations. Unfortunately, however, fishing was also really important to the UK. It was central to our priority objectives about what a final Brexit deal would look like. Brexit was never going to be something that positively improved the position of Irish fishermen. This was always going to be about trying to limit the damage. But, unfortunately, this did not prove possible, given how the negotiations evolved.
One-third of the fish landed in the Republic is caught in British waters. The British would have blocked us from fishing in their waters had there been a no-deal Brexit. In addition, other EU fishing fleets that also fish in British waters would have been displaced into Irish waters. That extra impact on our fishing industry would have been really, really damaging. We worked very hard to prevent that scenario. We worked really hard to leverage other aspects of the Trade Deal in the negotiation around fishing to try and strengthen the outcome.
The British Government looked to take back 100% of the fish that EU fishermen – including Ireland – caught in their waters. Ultimately, it was agreed that 25% of the fish that the EU fleet catches in UK waters would be reallocated to the UK between now and 2026.
Unfortunately, it has impacted other EU fleets because that 25% comes from EU fleets. But, most of all, it affects our fleet to a more significant extent than other EU fleets. Two of the key species re-allocated were mackerel and prawns, which are high-value species. We have also seen allocations of around 20% in some of our whitefish fleet – haddock, hake and megrim. It means that between now and 2026, 15% of our total national quota will be lost as part of the Brexit deal. So there is no downplaying the fact that it will impact and be detrimental to our fishing industry - and to other EU fleets , but to a lesser extent than ours - because the burden we are taking as part of the overall deal is a larger one.
We worked hand-inglove with the industry representatives right throughout the process up to the very end. But, unfortunately, at the very crunch, a deal was needed in fisheries to avoid a nodeal scenario.
You established a Seafood Sector Task Force on February 26th to mitigate the effects of the EU/UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement. What are you expecting it to achieve?
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement will see significant reductions in Ireland’s quotas for some key stocks, notably mackerel and prawns, as part of the agreed transfer of quotas to the UK.
Quota reductions will begin on a phased basis in 2021. They will result in a loss to Ireland of stocks worth €43 million per annum by 2026 or a 15% reduction overall in Irish fish quotas. The effects are immediate, with 60% of those reductions taking effect from April.
The outcome of Brexit could have been much worse for the Irish Fishing industry in a no-deal scenario, with lack of access to UK waters for one-third of our fish catches that occur in UK waters, or increased displacement of the Irish and other EU fleets into our waters. Nevertheless, the agreed EU/UK outcome will still significantly impact our fishing fleet and their coastal communities. Government is committed to providing financial supports to those most affected to help our seafood sector and coastal communities adjust to this blow.
I asked the Taskforce to produce an interim report within two months, focusing on recommended arrangements for a voluntary fleet tie-up scheme to temporarily counter the impact of the reduction in quotas, which will begin from April.
The final report, to be delivered within four months, will address their recommendations for a voluntary fleet decommissioning scheme to adjust and re-balance certain segments of the fleet with the reduced fishing opportunities available and any other recommended initiatives to support our seafood sector and coastal communities.
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