Several leading Aran Island fishers have spoken of how impossible it is for family businesses to continue fishing due to Brexit-related quota losses and escalating fuel costs.
Interviewed on RTÉ Radio 1 Countrywide, John and Mary Conneely outlined the struggle involved, and said they would be considering applying for the Government’s decommissioning scheme.
The Conneelys, who live in Gort na gCapall on Inis Mór, are a fourth-generation fishing family.
A 60 million euro scrappage scheme, where vessel owners who agree to surrender their licenses and have their vessels broken up, is being rolled out by the Government with EU backing.
It is anticipated it will involve decommissioning up to 60 vessels to ensure that the remaining Irish whitefish fleet remains viable.
Bord Iascaigh Mhara, which is administering the scheme, has opened it for applications.
Conneely, whose late father Gregory was something of a legend in the Aran fleet, told the programme that the industry is no longer offering an attractive career for young people from the islands.
Stevie Joyce, also an Aran islander, said he hopes to remain in the industry. Joyce, who fishes the 27-metre Oileáin an Óir, recalled how there was a time when one had to queue for several hours to land fish in the Galway fishery harbour of Ros-a-Mhíl.
“Those days are gone,”Joyce said, and landings by Irish vessels are becoming increasingly infrequent.
He told the programme how Irish fishermen had agreed to conservation measures for the Porcupine Bank prawn fishery, but now Irish vessels have to tie up early due to the small quota, while French, Spanish, Northern Irish and other vessels continue to fish there.
Landings of foreign vessels into Irish fishing harbours have risen by 48 per cent over the past decade, while there has been a “big drop” in the amount of fish landed by Irish vessels, according to two seafood industry organisations who met Tánaiste Leo Varadkar recently on the issue.
Listen to the RTÉ Radio 1 Countrywide report HERE