The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuiv, pledged full Government support for the fishing industry's case in Brussels next week when he addressed a rally at Rossaveal, Co Galway, yesterday.
The Minister, who topped the poll in Galway West at the last election, said "mistakes had been made" by the government of the day at the time of EU accession 30 years ago, but such mistakes should not be repeated now.
Speaking from the platform of an articulated trailer, the Minister told up to 100 fishing skippers, crews and employees in fish processing that he was fully behind the industry in terms of maintaining communities on the coastline. He was fully confident that the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, would put all his energy into the negotiations on the review of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
Most of the harbour's fleet of over 30 vessels had tied up in support of the day of action, and staff at the Galway and Aran Fishermen's Co-Op and Iasc Mara, the processing factory employing about 50 people, also downed tools for the noon rally.
The purpose-built fishery harbour accounts for up to €12 million in annual landings, said Mr Paul Murphy, the co-op chief executive. Apart from 200 people employed on vessels, the fleet supports an additional 700 jobs.
Mr Murphy said this past week's closure of four key whitefish fisheries by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources due to quota limits highlighted the absolute inequity of the share-out for Ireland. The ban on two of those species, prawns and megrims, has been lifted, partly due to support from Northern Irish fishermen who offered a surplus prawn allocation.
Mr Murphy said that it was "totally illogical" to allow a fleet to develop, as had happened over the past five years, and not allow it to catch. Citing monkfish as an example, he said Ireland had 42 per cent of the sea area for this species and just 16 per cent of the quota, while France had 49 per cent of the quota and just 12 per cent of the sea area.
Mr Pat Fitzpatrick, skipper of the 90-metre Shauna Ann, said fishermen supported conservation as it guaranteed the future of their livelihood. However, Irish vessels were being asked to take an "unfair hit" in the review of the CFP, which is due to be debated next week.
"We are the small fish in a big pond," he said. Referring to the Irish Box, the 50-mile exclusion zone which may be opened up from January 1st, Mr Fitzpatrick said there was a huge fleet of vessels in Spain which had been forced to tie up due to restrictions on fishing off Morocco. "They are just waiting to come up here, and they will clean the Irish Box out," he said.
Mr Fitzpatrick's vessel is one of a fleet of new deepwater vessels built within the lifetime of the last government with State support. He said: "We were told that 50 per cent of our catch had to be deepwater species, which were not subject to quota. Then the EU comes and slaps a quota on the stocks six months later."
Mr Cathal Groonell, managing director of Iasc Mara Teo, said he was confident the Minister, Mr Ahern, would put up a "good fight" in Brussels. The situation with the Irish Box looked bleak, but if the Hague Preference, enshrining certain quota rights of Ireland and Britain, could be maintained, it would "protect the little we have".
Vessels also tied up for protest meetings in Greencastle and Killybegs, Co Donegal; Dingle and Fenit, Co Kerry; Castletownbere, Union Hall, and Baltimore in Co Cork; Dunmore East, Co Waterford; Howth, Co Dublin and Clogherhead, Co Louth.