KEVIN KILLEEN: Ball burst, game over: the Brexit seafood debacle

Ball burst, game over: Brexit seafood

debacle Kevin Killeen

Despite repeated warnings that things would not remain the same, and even when quota cuts of up to 20% were alluded to by Michel Barnier in the run up to the final phase of negotiations, the shape of the Brexit deal between the UK and the EU left the Irish seafood industry reeling. The fishing industry paid the cost of the deal with the EU, and Ireland paid a disproportionate amount of that.

The damage done when Ursula von der Leyen and Boris Johnson disappeared into the ‘negotiating tunnel’ will be long-lasting and profound for the seafood, catching, and processing sectors. It undid the solidarity which had been a hallmark of the negotiating process since Brexit became an issue in 2016.

ritualiSed gNaShiNg of teeth

As part of the agreement, the EU has had to cede to the UK the right to fish stocks withn the UK’s EEZ which were previously shared among all EU countries. €43 million annually worth of fish quotas - at first-point-of-sale - is the recurring cost thus paid by Ireland, mainly in access to mackerel, and a series of whitefish and Nephrops quota will permanently reduce vessels’ earning capacity and export volumes from Ireland. In the coming months and years, Ireland will lose hard-won markets to the UK and other competitors. Much was made of ‘burden-sharing’ and the need to re-balance the costs paid by other EU fishing nations. This was just more ritualised gnashing of teeth which will come to nothing, because when it comes to trading fish resources, Ireland’s EU colleagues are not renowned for their charity. The government was quick to recognise the hit the seafood sector has taken. A meeting in December involving the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, Marine Minister Charlie McConalogue, and the seafood industry saw the establishment in February of a Seafood Sector Task Force of the great and the good and stakeholders in the seafood industry who will now have to figure out a way forward. The fishing industry cry is that it wants more fish, not money, but money is likely to be the only thing available.

fiShiNg iS Not importaNt eNough?

Just how much money will be forthcoming is a function of the size of the Brexit adjustment funding cake and what share Ireland’s fishing sector can expect – and how much will be gobbled up by the rest of the economy. The international infighting is well advanced, and the trench warfare at home in Ireland is already equally bitter. The seafood sector has difficulty getting traction, and public understanding of the significant costs involved for it, as the oxygen of publicity continues to be consumed by the Northern Ireland Protocol and its attendant tensions.

The Brexit deal is a watershed moment of ‘pure change’ for much of the seafood sector. Its effects on aquaculture will be confined to trading and logistics difficulties. But the wild-caught fisheries will have to find a new equilibrium in the coming years – an equilibrium that can only be detrimental to employment and investment. Brexit was never going to be a bed of roses, but there was, it now seems, an over-reliance on not being sold out at the death, which is what happened. The only difference is that the sale took place far from these shores, and it seems now that Irish fishing was just not important enough.