OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard)
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Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard) Impact of EU Exit on the Fishing Industry: Northern Ireland Fishermen's Federation 19 January 2021 NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Impact of EU Exit on the Fishing Industry: Northern Ireland Fishermen's Federation 19 January 2021 Members present for all or part of the proceedings: Mr Declan McAleer (Chairperson) Ms Clare Bailey Mrs Rosemary Barton Mr John Blair Mr Maurice Bradley Mr Harry Harvey Mr William Irwin Witnesses: Mr Alan McCulla Anglo-North Irish Fish Producers' Organisation Mr Harry Wick Northern Ireland Fish Producers' Organisation The Chairperson (Mr McAleer): I welcome, via StarLeaf, from the Fishermen's Federation Mr Alan McCulla and Mr Harry Wick. Thank you for coming to the Committee meeting at very short notice. We consider quota apportionment to be an urgent issue, given the critical decisions to be made by the UK Government, most likely by the end of this month. If you take around 10 minutes to outline the federation's position on the matter, Committee members will then want to ask some questions. Alan or Harry, do either of you want to kick off? Mr Alan McCulla (Anglo-North Irish Fish Producers' Organisation): Mr McAleer, I will start and Harry will continue. First of all, we thank you, the Committee members and staff for arranging today's emergency meeting at short notice. Your approach and that of the Committee is deeply appreciated. In May 2020, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove MP, presented to Parliament Command Paper 226, which deals with the UK's approach to the Northern Ireland protocol. Paragraph 52 of that paper deals with fisheries and includes the following sentence: "The fishing industry is of great importance to Northern Ireland and we are determined to ensure that fishers from Northern Ireland are not placed at any disadvantage either through customs duties or associated barriers." It is ironic that, today, the Northern Ireland fishing industry's greatest fear from the Brexit deal is not customs or associated barriers but that London will seek to redistribute within the UK some of what should be Northern Ireland's share of the additional fishing quotas that have been gained from the EU. 1 Across the UK, existing fishing quotas are distributed on the basis of a system that is known as fixed quota allocation (FQA) units. FQAs are a dynamic tool that have allowed Northern Ireland fishermen to invest in fishing opportunities all around the UK. Today, Northern Ireland's fishermen hold about 8·4% of all UK fishing opportunities, or FQAs. There seems to be a presumption that Northern Ireland's fishing operations are confined to the Irish Sea, a presumption that George Eustice, the EFRA Secretary, implied in recent answers to parliamentary questions. They are not. Only 20% of Northern Ireland's FQAs comprise fish and shellfish stocks in the Irish Sea. In other words, 80% of our fishing opportunities comprise quota holdings to the west of Scotland, in the North Sea and in the south-west approaches. We suspect that DEFRA's aim is to allocate only a proportion of the UK's gains in the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland's fishermen. When Northern Ireland's existing share is applied to the additional quota that was gained by the UK from the EU, it should mean that Northern Ireland gains new fishing opportunities worth £19·1 million per annum from 2026 in all sea areas. Of those, 50% are prawns, which are the most important local catch here in Northern Ireland; 30% are pelagic species, such as mackerel and herring; and 20% are demersal and whitefish species. All local fishermen will benefit, and the local industry has an open mind about how that quota should be allocated and used in Northern Ireland. DEFRA consulted in October 2020 on how any additional quota might be allocated across the UK. We provided the Committee with a copy of our response to that consultation. In short, all the alternative proposals from DEFRA would penalise Northern Ireland's fishermen. We believe that DEFRA is manoeuvring to reallocate quota from Northern Ireland to England, Scotland and, to a lesser extent, Wales in order to placate people with fishing interests there who are bitterly disappointed with the outcome of the fisheries elements of the UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement. The Minister is aware of those issues and has been supportive, raising them in discussions with Ministers in London, and, through our political representatives, we have made the First Minister and the deputy First Minister aware of the battle. Our ask of the Committee today is that you add your support and consider what representations you can make to DEFRA and Ministers in order to ensure that Northern Ireland is allocated its share of the additional UK quota, based on the hard work and investments that have been made by Northern Ireland fishermen. Thank you. The Chairperson (Mr McAleer): OK. Harry, do you want to pick up on something? Mr Harry Wick (Northern Ireland Fish Producers' Organisation): Yes, please, Chair, if I may. Alan laid out the concern, and I will lay out why we feel that the risk is very credible. This is quite a complex issue when you consider all the narrative that surrounds it. To be absolutely clear, so that there can be no confusion on the issue, for us, this is about Northern Ireland getting its fair share of any additional quota that comes as a result of leaving the EU. It is not a conversation about what we will do with that quota once we have it. There are certainly discussions in Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK about how that quota could be applied more fairly within the areas of the devolved Administrations. We are very open to those discussions, but, for us, this is about the allocation of quota between the Administrations in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. What happens when it gets to each of those Administrations is down to the Administration, but the decision on how much of it goes to each Administration is a central government decision. The reason why we feel that there is a genuine threat is borne out by some of the questions that were asked recently in the House of Commons. On 14 January, Ian Paisley junior asked the Secretary of State for EFRA for no discrimination and whether Northern Ireland would be given its fair share. The response from Mr Eustice was that the consultation is about how the quota should be allocated in a new fashion. The consultation is not about whether the quota should be allocated in a new fashion, and I stress that point, but his response was that it is about how it should be allocated in a new fashion. That response suggests that, in his mind, a decision has already been made and that the consultation is moot. His response indicates that it should be allocated in a new fashion, and, as Alan pointed out, any of the proposed new allocation methods in the consultation would penalise Northern Ireland. Stephen Farry also asked the Secretary of State whether the quota would be allocated by FQAs, and he avoided answering that part of Stephen's question. Carla Lockhart illustrated to him directly that it would be disadvantageous for Northern Irish vessels to have the quota allocated by any method other than FQAs and asked him to confirm that it would be allocated by FQAs. His response was that he was working closely with devolved: 2 "Administrations on a fairer sharing arrangement". That implies that the current arrangement, which is allocation by FQAs, is not fair. We have to be realistic about what we expect the Secretary of State to say about an issue that is under consultation, but from the language that he has used, it is perfectly clear that he thinks that there has to be a change. What also concerns me is the response that we get from his civil servants whenever we discuss the issue. We have a very positive working relationship with DEFRA civil servants, and they are normally very happy to tell us their thoughts on and plans for specific areas. On this issue, however, the answer that we are all getting is the party line. The indication that I am getting from my discussions with those civil servants is that there is a very strong chance that Northern Ireland will be disappointed in this, and disappointment equates to being disadvantaged. The simplest way for me to express the situation is for you to visualise two fishermen, one from Northern Ireland and one from England. Both fish on vessels alongside each other in the North Sea for the same species. At the end of this process, the English fishing vessel could receive a greater uplift in fishing opportunity than the Northern Irish one purely by virtue of the fact that it is English. That is grossly unfair and, in my view, politically untenable. Thanks for the opportunity to address the Committee. The Chairperson (Mr McAleer): Thank you for that, Harry. Before I move on, I will say that I have been looking through the documents, and, without prejudicing what any other Committee member will say, I know that we will want to do whatever we can with you to get the best for the fishermen and fisherwomen here, regardless of how we ended up in our current position. To elaborate a little further, you explained the quota issue in good detail.