A new ‘Minister of Marine’ will require a referendum - The Munster Express

A new ‘Minister of Marine’ will require a referendum The Munster Express

The Taoiseach opened the Fair Seas conference in Cork City last week and during his contribution he surprised the audience by proposing that Ireland needs a new ‘Minister for the Marine’.

This would require a referendum, and would see marine affairs, like fishing, represented at the top table of government, rather than being rolled into a junior ministry along with agriculture and food.

Fair Seas are an environmental coalition who seek to protect, conserve and restore Ireland’s marine environment, and hope to make Ireland a world leader in marine protection.

Last week’s conference brought together a variety of industry leaders and stakeholders to discuss the future of Ireland’s seas.

Fair Seas provided one of the talks in a Coastwatch conference in Waterford in February of this year, when The Munster Express was represented on a panel.

The conference considered the future of the Waterford Estuary in light of the large windfarm development set for a site named Tonn Nua off the South East coast.

The fishing villages along the Waterford Estuary have been devastated by quotas imposed at EU level.

Last December, The Munster Express spoke to a skipper based on the Waterford Estuary, Mickey Foley, who spoke of similar situations.

“My family is fishing since before the start of records, back in 1864,” he explained “I’m fishing 42 years myself. They have never come back from Brussels with good news.

They tell us the quota might be cut by 40% and then when it gets cut by 20% they act like we’ve got a good deal.”

These conferences and large scale sea developments come at a pivotal moment for Ireland’s marine life. Amazingly, the Marine Ireland Industry Network reports that Ireland’s seabed is 10 times larger than its land.

This enormous natural resource has been historically neglected, and Ireland’s marine industries display none of the solidarity or political protections evident in the farming industry.

2026 was set to be the worst year for Irish fishing ever, as Ireland’s Hague Preferences were blocked at EU level by other EU members. The November 1976 Hague Preferences allowed Ireland to take a larger share of some fish stocks if those stocks fall below a certain level.

With this allowance blocked, Ireland was hit by a 70% cut to its mackerel quota, its most valuable fish stock.

However, in March 2026 Minister Timmy Dooley welcomed a €32 million agreement at the EU Agrifish Council, that saw the quota reduced to 48% rather than 70%.

“Over the last number of weeks I have been engaging with colleagues around Europe to try and bring some balance and level the playing pitch to ensure that at this difficult time for Ireland, who holds the greatest percentage of the mackerel quota, that we got a fair chance to sustain our fishing sector, particularly the pelagic fleet and consequently then the processing sector and the jobs in those communities,” he said.

During his appearance at the Fair Seas conference last week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin agreed with his Minister of State, Timothy Dooley, who has suggested the Ireland’s seas require their own dedicated minister.

Ireland’s Constitution allows for only 15 ministers. Increasing this limit would require a referendum.

In widely reported comments, the Taoiseach said: “We’re an island, we’re surrounded by our seas and there’s something missing where we don’t have a stronger department of the marine”.

The Taoiseach also acknowledged that this referendum may be politically unpopular but could be necessary.

Speaking at the opening of the conference the Taoiseach sought to emphases his commitment to Ireland’s seas.

“As Taoiseach, and someone who is proud to call Cork home, the sea has shaped our sense of who we are. In our coastal towns and villages, it has sustained families for generations,” he said,

“As an island nation, the sea is not the edge of Ireland, it is the beginning of the rest of the world. We gather here today at a very important moment. Across the world, people are coming to understand more clearly that the health of our oceans cannot be taken for granted.

“Rising sea temperatures, biodiversity loss, degraded habitats, pollution, and climate change impacts are no longer distant warnings. They are realities already impacting marine ecosystems and coastal communities.

“We see those changes in our own waters. We see it in dwindling fish stocks, pressures on biodiversity and the increased vulnerability of coastal environments to storms and erosion.

“And we know that what happens beneath the surface of our seas will shape what happens above it — for our economy, our climate resilience, and our communities. That understanding creates an obligation to act with care,” the Taoiseach added.

The Taoiseach later outlined that the blue economy framework in the programme for government will generate over €17 billion and create 109,000 jobs.

He acknowledged Ireland’s unique opportunity to capitalise on offshore wind, such as the new Tonn Nua development in the South East, and highlighted significant progress Ireland has made in mapping its seabed.

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