Two fishermen have won an appeal over a ban on trawling inside the Irish six-mile limit.
A judgment issued by the Court of Appeal has ruled that the Government policy directive introducing a ban on trawling inside the six nautical-mile limit is invalid and of no legal effect.
The judgment by Mr Justice Murray relates to an appeal taken by Dingle-based fisherman Tom Kennedy and Castletownbere-based fisherman Neil Minihane over a policy directive introduced by the then Minister for Marine Michael Creed on March 5th, 2019.
The Irish Wildlife Trust has described the judgment as “dreadful news for marine life in coastal waters as the courts once again overturn a ban on trawling due to a technicality”.
“This was to have come into effect three years ago, but pair trawling and other destruction continues,” the IWT said in a post on social media.
The Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation (IS&WFPO) has welcomed the judgment.
The policy directive initiated by Mr Creed had ruled that all vessels over 18 metres in overall length would be banned from using trawl or seine nets inside six nautical miles, including inside the Irish coast baselines, from January 1st 2020.
A derogation was issued for certain vessels (in the polyvalent and refrigerated sea water pelagic segments) targeting sprat, up to and including December 31st, 2021.
The Court of Appeals found that the failure of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine and the department to notify Britain and the EU of conservation and management measures that would affect non-Irish vessels rendered the policy directive as invalid.
The failure to notify Britain related to the impact on Northern Irish vessels covered by reciprocal access, known as “voisinage”.
The “voisinage” arrangements between Ireland and Northern Ireland provide for reciprocal fishing access, allowing Irish registered vessels to fish within the six-nautical mile zone in Northern Ireland and Northern Irish vessels to fish within six nautical miles of Ireland.
These arrangements stand under the Brexit Trade and Co-operation Agreement, where the EU (on behalf of Ireland) is required to notify a measure -like the new policy directive - to Britain.
Both the EU and Britain have the right to make observations before measures are applied.
After the six-mile ban was introduced, both Kennedy and Minihane had taken a judicial review, and the High Court found in their favour in October 2020.
However, an appeal was lodged in November 2020 by Minister for Marine Charlie McConalogue.
The ban was temporarily reinstated in 2021 by the Court of Appeal, resulting in another round of legal action by the fishermen.
The IS&WFPO has offered to assist the Minister for Marine and his department officials to “properly introduce measures that will not discriminate against fishermen on the basis of their size and their ability to catch larger or smaller quantities of non-quota fish such as sprat”.
It has also called for a scientific evaluation of all commercial fish stocks within the six-nautical mile zone, and has said no policy directives should be set for these important fisheries until this assessment is complete.
