Ireland is facing EU fines of €40 million because of illegal fishing by some super-trawlers and false declarations of catches. Penalties on an even greater scale may be imposed because of the Government's failure to operate an effective fishery protection regime.
The situation is intolerable and carries strong echoes of the illegality that permeated the beef industry in the mid-1980s. At that time, criminal behaviour was tacitly ignored on the basis that "everybody was at it". The fisheries sector is little different today.
Efforts by Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources Noel Dempsey to address this can of worms have led to public protests by trawler-owners; a backbench revolt by Fianna Fáil TDs against a new Fisheries Bill and a considerable weakening of that legislation because of widespread Dáil opposition. After months of delay, the Bill finally reached committee stage last week.
Mr Dempsey deserves praise for his efforts to protect the public purse, as does Green Party spokesman Eamon Ryan, who consistently argued the need to protect fish stocks and for fishermen to remain within the law. This legislation is not about depriving small, hard-working fishermen of their livelihoods. It is about stopping illegal, multimillion-euro landings that have decimated fish stocks and enriched unscrupulous owners of large, modern vessels. Only last week in the west of Ireland, 15 trucks off-loaded catches worth an estimated half-a-million-euro from two boats in the middle of the night. Efforts were made to destroy security cameras. It has become par for the course. In the course of three years, trawlers from the Donegal mackerel fleet illegally landed about 40,000 tonnes of fish in Scotland, apart altogether from what went on here.
Foreign trawlers also breach their quotas. And the EU Commission has failed to put a transparent, effective conservation system in place. That must change. Action takes place at national level. The French government has been fined €20 million, with a further €60 million for every six months it takes to enforce effective fishery controls. More than 3,000 prosecutions were initiated in Spain last year. There were 26 in Ireland. Measures to detect illegal landings and to enforce quotas are seriously inadequate. And those fishery officers who apply the law are subjected to harassment and intimidation.
This is truly a race to the bottom. Every year, EU fishery ministers set catch quotas in excess of what scientific advice says is sustainable. Then fleets from member states break the law and exceed their quotas. Fish stocks have become seriously depleted. The industry is in danger of imploding. And most fishermen take the view that if they don't catch it, someone else will. If a wild sea fishery is to survive, there must be law and order. And Ireland, enjoying an advantageous position on the edge of the most lucrative fishing grounds in Europe, has a particular interest in ensuring the effective, long-term regulation of the industry.