Ireland has voted against an EU fisheries policy because of unfair treatment of Irish fishermen in other areas of policy.
At yesterday's Fisheries Council in Luxembourg, the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, John Browne, voted against a plan for blue-fin tuna management that ignores illegal fishing by several countries in the Mediterranean.
Mr Browne said he strongly supported the need for a recovery plan for blue-fin tuna, but he said the plan was unacceptable because it did not require the payback of illegally caught tuna.
He argued that the plan applied different rules to that implemented by the EU Commission in relation to undeclared landings of mackerel into Scotland by Irish and UK vessels.
"The principle of payback should apply equally to all. This matter is of direct relevance to Ireland in view of the payback terms on mackerel applied to Ireland and the UK which was subject to a Commission regulation earlier this year."
"Irish fishermen would find it difficult to understand how they should be subject to pay back requirements for illegal fishing in line with normal EU rules while in this case there would be no such requirement in an international agreement in respect of illegal fishing of blue fin tuna," said Mr Browne.
In response, the council and commission committed to the application of the normal principle of payback across all fisheries for the future.
The council also discussed for the first time a commission policy paper aimed at reducing and progressively eliminating the discarding of unwanted fish at sea. It is estimated that between 20 and 60 per cent of the fish caught at sea are discarded.
Market considerations and quota restrictions are just some of the reasons for high discard levels.