As Brexit negotiations continue over fisheries, comments made by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern on the issue have angered a leading Irish fishing industry spokesman
Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) chief executive Sean O’Donoghue said he had contacted Minister for Marine Charlie McConalogue over remarks made on RTÉ Radio earlier this week by Mr Ahern.
Speaking on the Today with Claire Byrne show on the Brexit negotiations, Mr Ahern said he thought Britain “probably has a few arguments” in relation to fisheries.
Mr Ahern noted that Britain was being asked to stick to quotas set between 1973 and 1978, and Ireland had “never been happy” with the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) (dating from 1983) either.
He said that Denmark, Holland and France catch about 550,000 tonnes of fish in British waters, and Britain “only catches 94,000 tonnes in EU waters”.
“So I think they have an argument in that, “Mr Ahern said, and he believed this should be an issue for compromise by the EU.
The fishing industry represents only a fraction of a percentage of the British economy, and it is “not going to make a huge difference”, he said
In spite of British press reports about gunboats policing their waters, Mr Ahern said he believed Britain was more concerned about the financial issues involved in the so-called “level playing field”.
His remarks were part of a wider discussion on Brexit on the December 14th edition of Today with Claire Byrne.
Mr O’Donoghue said he was very disappointed in Mr Ahern’s “off the cuff remarks” as he had failed to make it clear that any concessions to Britain would displace vessels into Irish waters.
He also said that Mr Ahern had made the same mistake as many politicians, in failing to recognise that sovereignty of waters and of fish stocks were two separate issues, given that many fish stocks migrate and do not recognise borders.
“Britain was awarded 90,000 tonnes in seven species ten years after it joined the EU, due to third country agreements where the EU bought rights to fish in non-EU waters,” Mr O’Donoghue said.
“It also benefited from the so-called Hague Preferences, and that means that it has benefited by at least a billion euro a year over the last ten years as a result of these concessions,” Mr O’Donoghue said.
“Britain has no jurisdiction over straddling stocks – waters and fish are two different things,” Mr O’Donoghue said.
"The fisheries issue in the Brexit talks has focused interest in Ireland on how badly the country is treated under the current Common Fisheries Policy".
A former Irish diplomat has separately warned that Ireland is likely to get a “raw deal” on fish from Brexit, and this will fuel “growing disenchantment” with Brussels.
Mr Bassett, Ireland's former ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas, told Express.co.uk: "The fisheries issue in the Brexit talks has focused interest in Ireland on how badly the country is treated under the current Common Fisheries Policy.
"This is very uncomfortable for the Government and the pro-EU lobby.
“The possibility, or more likely the probability that Ireland's meagre fish ration in its own waters may even be further reduced to cater for French, Spanish and Dutch fishing interests displaced by Brexit, is causing consternation,” Mr Bassett says.
Such circumstances would trigger demands in Ireland for the Common Fisheries Policy to be scrapped, putting Taoiseach Micheal Martin in an awkward position politically.
Mr Bassett added: "It again shows how short-sighted Ireland's policy was of throwing its lot in with the EU during Brexit.