This article is from page 99 of the 2008-10-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 99 JPG
A STRONG, profitable and sustain- able future for our counties fishing industry is what Clare TD, and junior agriculture minister, Tony Killeen, was looking for at last weeks meet- ing of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
Killeen was taking part in a discus- sion by ministers marked the start of the debate on the reform CFP, which will see a new policy in place by PAU
‘“T hope that the debate on the CFP will lead to a simplified policy for all the stakeholders concerned. How- ever, I will not support a policy that promotes the concentration of ac- tivity and benefits in the hands of a small number of large companies,”
he said.
“Our aim is for a policy, which maximises the development of all our coastal communities, and for this reason it is vital that quotas and their management are retained under na- tional competence and not moved to a market based mechanism.
“T strongly argued that restrictive days at sea were not necessary for the Celtic Sea south and west coast fish- eries. I argued that alternative meas- ures such as closed areas to protect spawning stock could be as effec- tive.” Ireland also hosted a meeting in Brussels last week on its initia- tive for a pilot project on eliminating discards in fisheries. The meeting brought together the European Com- mission as well as representatives of France and the UK.
“This 1s one of my key priorities as discarding of fish at sea is an 1s- sue which needs to be tackled im- mediately and I am pleased that to- day’s meeting advanced the proposal which I presented to Commissioner Borg recently,” he said.
“T am hopeful that the Commission will consider carefully the detail of our proposed scheme which seeks to work in partnership with industry on providing incentives to reduce the current unacceptable level of dis- cards.”
Meanwhile, Minister Killeen, also last week launched a new online service, Integrated Forest Informa- tion System (IFORIS) Internet.
The new service will allow ap- proved foresters and forestry compa- nies to track online the processing of
Forestry applications that have been submitted to the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
‘The service is the first phase of a planned development for IFORIS In- ternet. The second phase will enable foresters and forestry companies to submit pre-approval applications online on behalf of their clients,’ he nLOe
“This will streamline admuinistra- tion issues for foresters and the For- est Service. The provision of online access to IFORIS for approved for- esters via the Internet is one of the eGovernment initiatives being un- dertaken by the Department as part of its current IT Strategy, and under- pins its commitment to the delivery of improved online services.”