EU cuts will wipe out Irish deep sea fishery - Ahern

The Minister for Communications and Natural Resources, Mr Noel Ahern, warned today that new EU proposals on fishing rights will "effectively wipe out Ireland’s deep sea fishery."

Mr Ahern, who traveled to Luxembourg today for a meeting of EU council of Fisheries Ministers, said the proposals for limiting the catch of deep sea stocks were "disproportionate and unbalanced".

The EU is proposing an 18 per cent cut in tonnage of the EU fleet to protect dwindling stocks. The changes would see a limit the number of days fishing vessels can go to sea, an end all financial aid for fleet renewal and a scraping up to 400 vessels in the Irish fleet.

I will be making it very clear to my colleagues tomorrow that this proposal is totally unacceptable to Ireland The Minister for Communications and Natural Resources, Mr Noel Ahern

The EU Commissioner for Fisheries, Mr Franz Fischler, has insisted the changes are necessary to protect "dwindling fish stocks" and stem "diminishing catches"

Mr Fischler says there are "too many vessels chasing too few fish".

However, Minister Ahern said: "Ireland relies on a number of key quota species which are heavily fished by other member states, and this policy will severely impact on the Irish fishing community."

Under the proposed Total Allowable Catches and Quotas system Ireland will get only 1 per cent of the deep-sea catch while France and Spain will get 90 to 97 per cent, claims Mr Ahern.

"I will be making it very clear to my colleagues tomorrow that this proposal is totally unacceptable to Ireland," he said.

Mr Ahern said he would be making a strong case to his EU colleagues for the continued restriction of access to critical fishing areas such as the "Irish Box".