Joint Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs annual report shows 34 meetings, 198 witnesses and a packed agenda in its first year

Ireland’s newly established Joint Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs has completed its first year of operation, meeting on 34 occasions and hearing from 198 witnesses as it worked through a packed agenda spanning quotas, marine protected areas, aquaculture licensing and vessel safety.

The committee’s annual report, covering the period from 15th May 2025 to 15th May 2026, shows a body that found its feet quickly. The Joint Committee held 34 meetings totalling more than 58 hours of discussion, while the linked Dáil Select Committee met on three occasions for a further two hours and 25 minutes.

Sinn Féin’s Conor D McGuinness TD has chaired the committee since its first sitting, with Fianna Fáil’s Pat the Cope Gallagher TD elected Leas-Chathaoirleach. Membership shifted slightly over the year: Senator Sarah O’Reilly replaced Senator Victor Boyhan in June 2025, and Deputy Eamon Scanlon took over from Deputy John Connolly, who had himself replaced Deputy Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere, in January 2026.

A standalone slot for fisheries

The committee itself regards its establishment as a welcome development, giving fisheries and marine issues a weekly slot and a level of political scrutiny it considers overdue given the pressures facing the sector: climate change, quota cuts, rising costs and the fallout from the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

That view was borne out by the range of subjects covered across the year. Early sessions dealt with the extension of the EU-UK trade agreement and its implications for the Irish fishing and seafood sector, followed by engagement with Bord Iascaigh Mhara and a review of the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006. Offshore renewable energy planning, sprat fishing, island fisheries and the Common Fisheries Policy sustainability impact assessment all featured before the summer recess of 2025.

The autumn and winter brought sessions on harbour and pier infrastructure, aquaculture innovation, and three separate engagements with the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, one of which examined the SFPA’s accountability framework and decision-making procedures in detail. Marine protected areas were discussed twice: once with the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, and once with a wider group including Fair Seas, the Irish Wildlife Trust and Birdwatch Ireland.

The case of the Mary Kate WD30 brought a rare individual note to proceedings, with former owner C.J. Gaffney and two naval architects giving evidence on fishing vessel safety issues alongside officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Transport’s Marine Survey Office.

More recent meetings turned to an inshore fisheries income stabilisation and climate compensation scheme proposed by the National Inshore Fisherman’s Association, sea and cliff rescue provision, sustainable management of crayfishing, the impact of climate change on fish stocks, and seaweed harvesting and licencing.

Report on Sea-Fisheries Protection

The committee’s three sessions with the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority have since fed into a dedicated Report on Sea-Fisheries Protection, published separately from the annual report. The report makes 14 recommendations, among them better consultation between the SFPA and industry, a comprehensive review of sea fisheries legislation, enforcement applied to non-Irish vessels fishing in Ireland’s EEZ, and the establishment of a new Ombudsman with oversight of the SFPA.

Cathaoirleach Conor McGuinness TD said sea-fisheries protection had been an important theme in the committee’s work since its establishment, and pointed to this year’s 20th anniversary of the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2006 as a timely moment to review that legislation. Rapporteur Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD said the report drew on four public hearings, a written submission and commissioned research, and that industry calls for independent oversight of the SFPA and a move away from automatic criminal sanctions for minor infringements had been found to be compelling and reasonable.

EU business

On the European side, the committee considered nine EU legislative proposals during the year, adopting political contributions on three of them, covering fishing opportunities for 2026 to 2028 and the future Union support fund for the Common Fisheries Policy from 2028 to 2034. Minister of State Timmy Dooley appeared before the committee on three occasions in connection with AGRIFISH Council meetings in September and December 2025.

Five committee reports were published in all: the three political contributions plus the Annual Work Programmes for 2025 and 2026. The committee did not undertake any foreign travel during the year.

The case for inland fisheries

The report’s closing section makes the committee’s clearest policy pitch: extending its remit to cover inland as well as sea fisheries. The committee argues there is a clear logic and synergy to bringing both under one roof, particularly given what Minister Dooley has himself termed his “virtual Department of the Marine”. The Committee on Standing Orders and Dáil Reform has for now declined to make the change, and the fisheries committee says it will respect that decision while continuing to press its case at any future review.

With a second year of AGRIFISH negotiations, ongoing SFPA governance questions and further ICES advice still to come, the committee’s in-tray looks set to stay full.