Conor McGuiness TD, Timmy Dooley Minister of State with responsibility for Fisheries, Pat the Cope Gallagher TD
Gallagher said the loss of the Hague Preferences at the December 2025 Fisheries Council was among the issues discussed with the Commissioner.
“The loss of the Hague Preferences at the December 2025 Fisheries Council, after Ireland benefiting from them since 1976 was driven home to the visiting Commissioner,” he said.
“We highlighted that since 2021, and due directly to EU Commission policies Ireland has lost €260 million of quotas, meantime each year increased efforts of fishing occur in our waters from other EU Member States. Immediately after Irelands last decommissioning we witnessed increased fishing into the grounds we vacated by two other EU Member States – that is why our stocks are under constant pressure.”
He went on to argue that the Common Fisheries Policy has had a significant negative impact on the industry.
“The Common Fisheries Policy has led to the total destruction and virtual collapse of all the sectors within Irish fishing including fish processing, and this has greatly worsened post Brexit. Meanwhile, as Ireland gathers EU Fisheries Ministers to the first informal meeting, we fail to show leadership or the courage of our convictions by highlighting any of this to the wider European audience,” Gallagher said.
According to Gallagher, the delegation also discussed Ireland’s fisheries sanctions regime, which he described as being considerably tougher than systems operating elsewhere in Europe.
“We both raised the issue of whereby Ireland has a totally criminal based sanctions system and is extremely draconian in approach, and that is completely out of kilter with the rest of Europe. We did highlight that Minister Dooley is committed to reviewing the 2006 Act; which is overly heavy handed against Irish fishing,” he said.
Gallagher said he also raised concerns regarding the operation of Dutch pelagic freezer trawlers in waters west of Ireland.
“I took the opportunity to highlight directly to the EU Commissioner, the Oireachtas Committee concerns regarding the fishing activities of the Dutch Pelagic Freezer trawlers in the waters west of Ireland. How no one in the EU are monitoring these vessels, and how the change member state flags seamlessly at sea with zero oversight from anyone,” he said.
“I compared the lack of oversight on these freezing at sea vessels to the robust oversight we have within Ireland throughout our pelagic processing sector, and how the same rules and regulations must be applied to all. It is simply not good enough to state these are too big to monitor.”
Gallagher said he and McGuinness were the only Irish non-government delegation to meet the Commissioner and used the opportunity to press the concerns of Irish fishing communities.
“Both Deputy Conor Mc Guinness SF and I through our membership of the Oireachtas Committee, used this opportunity as the only Irish non-Governmental delegation to meet with the EU Commissioner; to highlight the issues that are impacting Irish fishermen and fisherwoman on a daily basis, the scale of pressures and impact forced on Ireland through the failed policies especially the CFP,” he said.
He said Commissioner Kadis acknowledged many of the concerns raised during the meeting.
“The EU Commissioner Costas Kadis agreed that a targeted review of the CFP is required, and he spoke at length on the issues that we raised. He made himself available for future meetings and spoke of the need for further engagement with the sector. He praised the work of the Oireachtas Committee. I would like to record my appreciation of the positive engagement both Conor and I had with the Fisheries Commissioner,” Gallagher said.
Concluding, Gallagher called on the Government to place greater emphasis on promoting the sector during Ireland’s EU Presidency.