Progress made on retaining cod and herring quotas

IRELAND made significant progress in retaining its quota for cod and herring and got an unexpected increase in prawns during the second day of negotiations on the annual fish quota in Brussels yesterday.

The industry was faced with cuts of up to 55% in some areas under the original proposals to cut the annual quota by 35% and to abolish the Hague Preferences, an additional quota unique to the Irish industry.

According to the Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) the reduction in cod quota will be just 5% which was welcomed by their spokesperson Jason Whooley.