Ireland is determined to secure almost one billion euro in EU compensation for the impact of Brexit in spite of France’s attempt to reduce this country’s share, Minister for Marine Charlie McConalogue has said.
As The Times Ireland edition reports today, Mr McConalogue said it was not yet clear what proportion of this funding would be allocated to the fishing industry, but this sector is recognised as having borne “the most severe impact of the final Brexit deal”.
Mr McConalogue said that there would also be national exchequer funding for the sector, in addition to the monies from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve – as the EU’s 5 billion euro compensation package is known.
Earlier this week, The Irish Times reported that France was trying to cut Ireland’s share, by proposing a different “allocation key” that would result in extra money going to bigger states like France, Spain and Italy.
It could cut €200 million from the expected sum of almost €1 billion due to Ireland this year, according to calculations by Belgian MEP Pascal Arimont, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Brexit Adjustment Reserve.
In a frank admission of the Brexit deal outcome, Mr McConalogue suggested it was almost inevitable that once Britain’s EU exit campaign had put the fishing industry and reclamation of its waters “front and centre”, there would be a negative outcome for the seafood industry here.
He defended Ireland’s decision not to use a veto, in contrast to France which had threatened to use it in defence of its Channel fleet.
“Given that we catch one-third of total fish in UK waters, a “no-deal” scenario would have been quite disastrous,” he said.
“It was a tremendous disappointment that fish was contained within the deal, and involved a 15 per cent quota loss to Ireland,” he said.
Mr McConalogue said that part of the remit of a seafood task force he has recently established would be to recommend the best ways for EU and national exchequer funding to be spent to support the seafood sector and coastal communities.
Its final report would have to be completed in four months, he stressed, and its remit would include Ireland’s approach to the next EU Common Fisheries Policy review, due to be completed by 2023.
A former State scientist Dr Peter Tyndall recently called on the government to employ the “best legal and maritime minds” to take a legal case for a better deal for Ireland under the EU Treaties guaranteeing coastal communities a fair income.
Mr McConalogue confirmed he has asked the task force to look at the options of tying up vessels in return for compensation in the short term, or a “small-level “of decommissioning vessels permanently.
Asked how he responded to the industry’s call for more fish, rather than fleet downsizing, McConalogue said that he was “ absolutely....with the industry on that”.
Read The Times here