Deep-sea trawler owners to challenge State on licences

Some of the biggest trawler owners in the Republic are to take the State to court over a policy that will cost them millions, writes John McManus

The Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation - the umbrella body for the lucrative deep-sea trawler industry - is expected to seek an injunction in the High Court this morning, pending a judicial review of aspects of the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern's policy on fishing boat licensing.

The policy, which became effective last November, requires up to seven deep-sea trawler owners to spend up to €18 million buying the tonnage allocations of smaller inshore fishing boats.

Under the European Union's common fisheries policy, the total tonnage of the Irish fishing fleet is restricted, and boats cannot be licensed unless they have a tonnage allocation to match the vessel size. The owners of the deep-sea trawlers involved in the legal challenge currently do not own enough tonnage for their boats to be licensed under the new licensing regime.

To resolve the problem, the Department wants them - under the new policy - to make up this shortfall by buying tonnage from other sectors of the industry, in particular the inshore sector where there is surplus capacity. This could cost the owners of the deep-sea boats up to €18 million, based on the current market price of tonnage.

The shortfall in the deep-sea sector arose over the past five years as the trawler owners rebuilt - and, in some cases, replaced - their boats, adding extra tonnage in the process. They had expected to avail of regulations that allowed additional tonnage to be added to boats, provided it was for safety reasons. But last year, the European Commission ruled that the Irish boats did not comply with the scheme.

The boats had operated on temporary licences pending the outcome of the Commission's deliberations, but now must comply with the new policy if they are to remain licensed.

The owners of the boats are expected to seek an injunction of the new policy today, pending a judicial review. They are expected to argue at the judicial review that appeals against the Commission rulings on safety tonnage are under way, and that they should be allowed to continue to operate on temporary licences.

The case is also expected to challenge the right of the Minister to make policy in the way he did, and also claim that they are being used as a decommissioning scheme for boats in the other sectors of the industry.

"They feel the Government is using them to sort out a problem of overcapacity in other sectors," said a source familiar with the dispute. The Government is under pressure from Brussels to resolve the issue of overcapacity in the inshore sector.

A spokesman for the Department of the Marine said last night that it expected the case to go ahead this morning. Mr Seán O'Donoghue, the chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, was not available for comment.