The newly-formed ‘Seafood Ireland Alliance’ by the Irish fishing industry catching and processing sectors wants a Minister for the Marine appointed, a post and Department which were abolished by the Government several years ago.
But the fishing industry is in such a bad way these days that drastic measures are needed, though the Government’s senior politicians have not shown urgency into what has been described by the Alliance as “an industry in freefall.”
As Afloat reported earlier, Irish fishing leaders were in Brussels to seek MEP’s support on the changes needed to prevent the collapse of their industry. This should be an interesting sessions, considering that Ireland’s 14 MEPs failed to get any of their number elected to the important European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee.
But Brussels is the heart of where decisions about the fishing industry are made and there is a feeling amongst the CEOs of the Irish representative organisations that they are not getting enough communication from the heart of decision-making, as Irish South and West Fish Producers’ Organisation, Patrick Murphy says: Our presence in Brussels at fisheries negotiations is limited and our input into key policy documents is largely ignored. The information flow from Europe on fisheries issues compared to other Member States, such as the Netherlands and Denmark is minimal. Our industry is forced to rely on its own sources for information and quite often is ‘in the dark’ on the progression on legislative proposals and the state of negotiations.
“We want the Government to appoint a dedicated Minister of State for the Marine. We also want an integrated hub and point of contact at the heart of Europe in Brussels to act as a conduit for information between the administrative officials and the industry. “
They intend to meet the Irish MEPs.
“We will talk to MEPs about the urgent need to implement the recommendations in the last CFP Report. We need to place the Irish fishing industry back onto a level playing field with our European partners, after the disastrous Brexit outcome for our sector,” according to John Lynch, CEO of the Irish South and East FPO.
Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation CEO Dominic Rihan says they will present a “position paper on the Irish fishing industry's key challenges. It’s time our share of EU quotas reflected our 12% share of the waters.”
The future viability of the fishing and seafood industries is under serious threat, according to Aodh O Donnell of the Irish Fish Producers Organisation (IFPO), while Brendan Byrne for the Processors and Exporters Association says 2024 is set to be “the worst year in the history of Irish fish processing. This reflects extremely poorly on EU policy and on the overall unfairness of the CFP towards Ireland.”
In a joint statement, the organisations before tomorrow’s meeting, the Seafood Alliance says. “We are witnessing adverse impacts across the board, from inshore boats to the largest vessels, targeting pelagic species such as mackerel and herring. This includes the entire onshore fish processing sector which has suffered huge losses in turnover.Unless immediate action is taken, there are fears of widespread business closures and that many Irish fishermen will permanently leave the industry. Meanwhile, non-EU members such as Norway, persistently overfish our shared migratory stocks of mackerel.”