The blockade at Cork Port ended this morning after the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries agreed to meet with the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) to discuss the crisis on Friday.
Trawlers arriving in Cork harbour as fishermen plan to protest about the decline of the Irish fishing industry.
The commercial manager for Cork Port, Mr Michael McCarthy, said movement in and out of the port was returning to normal after significant delays overnight.
Mr McCarthy said the fishing fleet had been given permission to tie up in the city ahead of Friday's meeting, but he warned that any further attempts to blockade the port would result in legal action.
Earlier, a spokesman for the southwest fleet, Ebbie Sheehan, told The Irish Timesthe blockade had been "temporarily suspended" pending the outcome of Friday's meeting with Minister Brendan Smith.
Mr Sheehan said there were plans to begin a hunger strike outside the Department of Fisheries in Clonakilty on Friday morning.
Mr McCarthy said the blockade had cost hundreds of thousands of euro and the blockade had had a serious impact on industry in the region. A crude oil tanker that had been prevented from coming into the Port last night is due to berth later this evening.
Labour’s spokesperson on the Marine, Senator Michael McCarthy has welcomed Mr Smith’s decision to meet with the FIF.
Speaking at today’s protest by fishermen outside the offices of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority in Clonakilty, Senator McCarthy called on the Minister to take pro-active action in assisting the industry.
“The Minister must come to realise that these fishermen have nothing to lose. Many are on the brink of bankruptcy,” he said. Mr McCarthy also called for an urgent meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries & Food to discuss the crisis.
Fine Gael’s Fisheries spokesman Michael Creed also welcomed Friday’s meeting, but warned that the time had come for action and not words to save the fishing industry from ruin.
Up to 70 vessels blocked the entrance to Cork harbour last night in the protest over rising fuel prices and cheap imports.
The FIF claims 50 to 70 per cent of a trawler’s turnover is being spent on fuel. It wants fleets to be paid not to go to sea as part of a temporary rota-based system regulating commercial fishing as fuel costs soar.
The organisation also wants stricter controls on traceability so consumers can see where the fish they are buying was caught.
The action is not being endorsed officially by FIF, representatives of the four main industry organisations, and it was condemned last nightas “unhelpful” by the Irish Association of Seafood Producers. The FIF renewed its call for temporary tie-up aid while the price of fuel is so high, and for a ban on illegal, unregulated and unreported products entering the EU.