Fishermen mount 24-hour protest over fuel prices

Most of the State's fishing fleet will be tied up from noon today as part of a 24-hour protest by fishermen over rising fuel prices.

With the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, due to outline the industry's difficulties to his Cabinet colleagues tomorrow, fishermen say they have organised the protest to remind the Government and the public that they are in crisis.

The rise in fuel prices has cost the industry £15 million so far this year, according to Mr Joey Murrin, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation. Eighty per cent of the running costs of a fishing vessel went on fuel, he pointed out, and the industry consumed a total of 80 million litres a year.

"We're hurting nobody but ourselves with this protest," he said, "but it's not going to cause us a lot of pain to tie up for a day because we're not making money anyway."

Members of the KFO, the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation and the South and West Fishermen's Organisation, together accounting for up to 90 per cent of the Irish fishing fleet, are involved in the protest. The Irish Fishermen's Organisation is not.

Mr Murrin said fishermen wanted the Government to cap the cost of fuel at 20p a litre; currently it stands at 32p. They are also seeking a £5,000 tax allowance for deckhands as well as an agreement to let boats fish alternate weeks and seek appropriate compensation from the European Commission.

Meanwhile, road hauliers say they are expecting a commitment to immediate action by the Government on fuel prices within a week to 10 days.

Later this week the Irish Road Haulage Association is due to present a number of proposals, including a reduction of excise duty on fuel, to an inter-departmental committee set up by the Government to consider all aspects of the issue.

The decision by the Taoiseach to set up the committee, which was relayed to the national council of the IRHA last weekend, prompted hauliers to call off further protests for the time being. Last Friday truck-drivers caused considerable traffic disruption in various parts of the State by driving in slow convoys on main traffic arteries.

The president of the IRHA, Mr Gerry McMahon, said yesterday his members were looking for a commitment to immediate action.

Petrol supplies were reported normal yesterday, despite a short-lived threat to fuel imports arising from protest action by Norwegian hauliers. They blockaded the entrances to 11 oil terminals but lifted the protest after the state oil company Statoil threatened legal action.

A spokeswoman for Statoil in Ireland said they were "particularly busy" as a result of extra buying last week, but the situation was "nothing we can't handle".