More community engagement needed in Brexit Seafood Sector Taskforce says Cllr Martin Farren

There has been a call in Inishowen for community sector representation on the new Seafood Sector Taskforce.

The Taskforce was set up to report on the effects of Brexit on the Irish fishing sector.

Speaking to Donegal Live, Greencastle Councillor Martin Farren (Labour) said: “I welcome the new taskforce and wish it well in its important work to protect the Irish seafood sector and the coastal communities that will be affected by Brexit. 

“Communities in Donegal stand to lose the most from the Brexit deal’s reduction in Irish quotas and from the extra bureaucracy that is emerging from Brexit protocols.

“We have already seen the effects of new Brexit regulations on fish landings locally, with Irish owned, UK registered boats suffering from restrictions on landing into their home ports.

“The taskforce, which Minister McConalogue launched in Greencastle, last week, has representatives of almost all of those involved in the Irish seafood sector, but it has some very obvious omissions. There is nobody to represent the actual communities that will be most affected by quota restrictions and Brexit bureaucracy. There is nobody representing the crews of the boats or the employees in the shore spin-off jobs,” said Cllr Farren.

According to Martin Farren, at the Joint Committee on Agriculture and the Marine debate (Friday, January 22), the Minister said the task force was about 'employment and the spin-off sectors, whether engineering, boatbuilding, maintenance or the local economy which depends on fishing in coastal areas'.

Cllr Farren added: “I am asking that the Minister stand over this statement and increase community representation on the taskforce immediately.

“Decommissioning has been mentioned but this will only compensate the boat owners, not the crews of those boats. Decommissioning will remove active fishing capacity from the Irish and EU registers. It can never be restored. This will be another permanent loss to Irish coastal communities which will make it more difficult for young people to gain a foothold in the Irish fishing industry.

“It will make it more difficult and expensive for those Irish fishermen who are currently operating UK registered boats in Ireland. Where will they find Irish tonnage and power to re-flag their boats onto the Irish Sea Fishing boat Register?

“One early suggestion is that, instead of decommissioning, the government should compensate the boat owners wishing to leave the industry but retain the fishing capacity on the Irish Sea Fishing Boat Register, in government ownership, to facilitate future entry into the fishing industry by young, trained and qualified fishermen in the future,” said Cllr Farren.

Cllr Farren praised the Shetland and Orkney authorities which invested early oil revenue into creating a pool of fishing capacity to support their island industries. 

He said: “France has a similar pool of capacity, in government ownership, which can be leased out to beginners entering the industry.

“We claim rights to fishing so we should not be selling off part of those rights as a knee jerk reaction. The loss of income around the coast is going to have an effect on coastal communities so it is only fair that those communities should have a say in any remedies being proposed. A solution that suits a Dublin based civil servant may not suit a coastal community in Donegal or Mayo.

“Over the years coastal communities have had to respond to many challenges. They have built up a reputation for resilience and thinking outside the box in order to survive. These communities have developed networks and self-support structures which have enabled them to weather many storms.

“They are used to putting whole communities first and to not being driven by selfish sectoral interests. There is a pool of expertise there which should be used by this new taskforce. In Inishowen, for example, Inishowen Development Partnership acts as the secretariat to several groups of community groups who have developed small-scale social, commercial and community enterprises. They know the pitfalls, they know the differences that the wording of “the small print” can make to a funding project, they have all been there. They are actively engaged with, and within, their communities.

“The Minister has, rightly, given the taskforce a short period to reach conclusions. He should also ensure that the correct information is being fed into it and discussed properly. Community input is essential if the taskforce is to produce a realistic solution to the problems facing us. Measure twice, cut once,” concluded Cllr Farren.