Minister Dooley reacts to outcomes of December AgriFish Council

The outcomes of this year’s December Agri-Fish Council will result in severely reduced fishing opportunities for 2026. The scientific advice upon which the Council’s decisions were based reflect the impact of overfishing of the mackerel stock by certain third countries. The advised 70% drop in the total allowable catch for mackerel is compounded by a 41% reduction in blue whiting and a 22% reduction in boarfish.

Ireland has consistently called for action against those countries who overfish mackerel. Given that Ireland holds the largest share of EU quota for mackerel in the western waters area, the devastating impact of the decline in this stock will be acutely felt. The Government has called for the EU to send a clear message that actions that threaten the sustainability of our shared stocks are not acceptable. At AgriFish Council, the importance of a concerted EU response was discussed by Ministers, including the option of triggering the unsustainable fishing regulation. This is something that Minister Dooley has sought for some time and will continue to pursue.

Having invoked the Hague Preferences for 2026, Minister Dooley expressed his extreme disappointment at the actions of a group of Member States who chose to block this protection mechanism for Irish fishermen and women. The Hague Preferences were created to account for Ireland’s underdeveloped fleet and to counter the impact of access to Irish waters provided to vessels of other EU nations. These amounts of fish allocated to Ireland from other Member States protected our fishing fleet from periods of severely depleted quotas. Regrettably, a group of Member States chose to block the invocation of The Hagues this year.

Commenting, Minister Dooley said:

ENDS

For certain fish stocks, EU member states are bound by catch limits administratively constrained in the first instance by a maximum Total Allowable Catch and, in the next instance, through their division among the member states via a system called Relative Stability. Each member state’s share is a proportion of the Total Allowable Catch (or of the EU’s share of the Total Allowable Catch for stocks that are fished more widely) that, in normal circumstances, represents a percentage of the EU’s share which is fixed relative to fellow member states.

The proportion allocated to each member state for a particular stock is based upon the historical fishing of that stock by the member state.

The Hague Preferences are a mechanism that forms part of Relative Stability. For certain stocks, when the quota that Ireland is due to receive falls below a specified threshold level, Ireland can trigger (or invoke) a redistribution of the other EU Member States’ quotas such that the other member states receive a proportionate decrease to their quota in order to return Ireland’s quota towards the threshold which it has fallen below.