Barrett ties up `outstanding' package on catch quotas

MARATHON EU fish talks early yesterday morning produced a compromise package which will see Irish quotas up by some 2,730 tonnes this year. The 21-hour talks were presided over by the Minister for the Marine, Mr Barrett. The Fisheries Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, fainted from exhaustion.

At a 7.30 a.m. press conference Mr Barrett said the result was an "outstanding success" for both Ireland and its EU presidency. Only Belgium and Sweden opposed the final package.

The quota talks involve an annual ritual of adjusting proposals from the Commission, based on scientific assessments of what stocks can bear, to balance the political need to reach agreement with some acknowledgment of the dangers of overfishing.

Although there are significant cuts in the Irish quotas in whiting and saithe in the Irish Sea and off the south-west coast, overall the whitefish quota for such fish as whiting, saithe, cod, haddock, sole, hake, plaice and pollock - is up 1,170 tonnes, despite Commission proposals for a cut of 6,685 tonnes. The largest gain is 775 tonnes in extra haddock.

The Irish quota for pelagic species - mackerel and herring - is 1,560 tonnes up on 1996, with 1,040 tonnes of the increase for herring in the Celtic Sea. Mr Barrett said the increase in quotas for these critical stocks was "a much needed and valuable gain" for the Irish fishing industry.

Most other species saw a quota freeze, although there were also "increases for monkfish and megrin of 13 and 18 per cent respectively.

Mr Barrett dismissed allegations by the British Fisheries Minister, Mr Tony Baldry, that the Republic was denying fish to Northern Ireland fishermen by not using its full quota in the Irish Sea or refusing to trade surplus quota.

Ministers agreed to defer a decision on the controversial restructuring of the fishing industry proposed by the Commission in its six-year Multi-Annual Guidance Programme IV (MAGP IV). The council agreed to reach a decision before April 30th.

Irish officials were reporting that up to nine countries now back the compromise package put forward by the presidency in place of the sweeping fleet cuts of up to 40 per cent proposed by the Commission. The Irish proposal is based on targeted cutbacks in fishing, either by fleet reductions or days at sea.