The figures the Deputy refers to were in a paper submitted to the Public Accounts Committee in September 2012 by Dr. Karen Devine of DCU. The title of the paper was 'Draft Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union' and was not related to fisheries per se. The figures quoted in the paper relating to 'the value of fish stocks taken from Irish Waters' were not supplied either by this Department or the Marine Institute. I am not aware that the information was supplied by the Department of Finance.
The waters around Ireland contain some of the most productive and biologically sensitive fishing grounds in the EU. In 2010, an estimated 1.3 million tonnes of fish were taken by the fishing fleets of EU member states from the waters around Ireland (ICES Sub-areas VI & VII which extend from north of Scotland to Brittany and cover part of the Exclusive Fisheries zone on the UK and France also). Ireland landed 259,500 tonnes of these fish or 23% of the international landings. The main fish species caught were mackerel, horse mackerel, boarfish, blue whiting, herring, cod, whiting, haddock, saithe, hake, megrim, anglerfish, plaice, sole and
Nephrops (prawns).
The Irish authorities are not responsible for compiling data on landings or the value of landings of fish by non Irish fishing vessels, except those landing into Irish fishing ports. Landing data is the responsibility of the flag Member State. Landing data into Irish ports are available on the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority web site. Landing figures for all Member States are publically available on the Eurostat website at the following link: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/fisheries/data/database.