Based on the responses given by the Department of Agriculture, Food & Marine (DAFM) to questions raised by the IFSA in December and put to the Minister by The Fishing Daily this week, one can only presume that Charlie McConalogue and his officials are of the same mindset of those who think if you keep saying something enough times then it will become a fact.
Flat-Earth ideas are based on basic scientific misunderstandings that can be easily refuted and, for most people, even those who have no physics background, the evidence for a spherical Earth is obvious and scientists are baffled why these ideas still persist in the 21st century.
In a similar vein, and even when the facts have been clearly outlined by the IFSA the Minister insists on blindly defending his initial statement even though it is clearly a piece of fiction.
What the Minister describes as a “new permanent mackerel allocation worth €3m annually” is:
A) not ‘new’ as this mackerel allocation previously belonged to Ireland before getting lost in complicated quota swaps over the years;
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B) its not ‘permanent’ as it starts out at 2,495 tonnes for Ireland in 2023 but reduces to 1,550 tonnes by 2026;
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C) and, for the reason stated above, it cannot be ‘worth €3m annually’ when the amount of fish is going to reduce by approximately 40% by 2026.
So the ONLY word the Minister is correct in is ‘mackerel’ - the rest is all PR spin - - but then again when did McConalogue ever let the truth get in the way of a good PR story?