EU plan provides lifeline for small boats

Currachs, punts and other small craft which could have faced eventual "scuttling" by the European Union have been given clearance to license and register with the Irish fishing fleet.

The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, has secured European Commission approval for a special scheme to regulate up to 1,000 small vessels around the coastline. The scheme will add some 5,000 tonnes to the national tonnage, and will help protect a threatened part-time inshore fishery. However, the boats will have to be inspected by marine surveyors, and may place an extra burden on stretched Department of Marine resources.

The move had been recommended by the 1996 Fishing Vessel Safety Review Group report, which also found that some 64 per cent of those vessels already on the register had serious deficiencies.

There are about 1,100 existing registered vessels, most being halfdeckers under 40ft in length. Some 120 vessels are over 60ft. The average age of existing registered craft is 30 years.

The Minister said on Sunday he was glad to have resolved the issue regarding small-boat owners, and it would have "positive safety benefits". He was anxious that these owners would be facilitated quickly, he said. Securing European Commission agreement had been vital, he added. "I have ensured that owners will be spared the expense of acquiring replacement tonnage in order to register their boats," he said.

Vessels now eligible for the scheme may only be offered for sale later as replacement tonnage when they have been on the register for 12 months.

Commenting on the announcement, Mr Tom Hassett, secretary of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation (IS&WFO), said it was a welcome move, if it protected boat-owners in peripheral areas. The industry is still awaiting details of the Minister's promised grant-aid scheme to renew the whitefish fleet, at a time when there is considerable unrest and anxiety over lost time due to bad weather and a collapse in the herring market.

The new vessel scheme, which was to include tax incentives, had been expected in the last Budget. The Minister has said it will be announced in the context of the forthcoming Finance Bill.

The Minister's herring task force, which is to report to him in March, has appointed a sub-committee to draw up an immediate recommendation, given that up to 1,500 jobs are said to be at risk.