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The government should threaten to veto the EU-UK trade deal if Irish fishing fleets have to carry a disproportionate share of EU catches returned to the UK, an industry group has said.
The Killybegs Fishermen’s Organization (KFO), which represents one of the largest parts of the fishing industry, has said that the proposed fishing deal would be the “death sentence” for Irish fishing.
The group is concerned that the industry risks losing € 44 million of the € 160 million of EU fish caught in British waters that EU negotiators are offering to return to the UK.
The € 160 million is equivalent to a concession of 25 per cent of fish stocks landed in UK waters to the British, but the KFO contends that the proposed fishing deal “disproportionately affects” Irish trawlers, given that his catch of mackerel amounts to 31 million euros. of the 160 million euros.
The KFO wants the deal rejected because it says it represents an unfair burden on the Irish. However, if the deal is carried out under pressure from other sectors, then the veto must be threatened to ensure that the industry receives adequate compensation for taking a disproportionate share of the lost inventory.
‘Unfair burden’
“If this deal is going to hurt us that much, then the government should use the veto to get compensation from others,” KFO CEO Sean O’Donoghue told The Irish Times.
“If it is that this is the agreement that is being closed, then Ireland needs, before signing it, to make the other member states take care of the unfair burden that we are carrying.”
The proposed fisheries deal would particularly affect Donegal as Killybegs relies heavily on fishing for mackerel in UK waters for a large part of its business.
“Ireland has to say, ‘Come here, we will not bear this burden and we will not sign this agreement,'” O’Donoghue said.
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said that if the UK accepted the EU’s offer and signed a trade deal, the 27 EU member states would have to agree to share the burden to ensure that some countries suffered no more than others as a result. of the agreement on fisheries.
Concessions to the United Kingdom
Mr Coveney said he would not be surprised if the deadlock on a fisheries deal collapsed all negotiations, and that he found it difficult to see how the EU’s major fishing nations could support further concessions to the UK.
The KFO noted the inequity in the proposed deal, noting that the share of UK mackerel, stocks that breed in the seas off the west coast of Ireland, would rise from 60% to 71%, while that of Ireland would drop from 60%. 21 percent to 13 percent.
Mackerel was the main source of income for the Irish fishing industry, O’Donoghue said.
He calculated that Killybegs would lose a third of its mackerel earnings and that the port would have to “dump” 10 of the 23 vessels fishing for pelagic fish, such as mackerel, under the deal.
“This would be a severe blow to Donegal, but it would also affect Castletownbere, Dunmore East, Kilmore Quay and Clogherhead because there are reductions in whitefish,” he said.
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