Negotiations begin with French fishing fleet to land catch in Ireland

Intensive meetings between representatives of 850 French fishing vessels and Irish seafood processing companies get underway today.

The talks organised by the Seafood Development Agency, BIM, are aimed at exploring strategic partnerships which would benefit both Irish fish processors and French fishing vessels.

BIM estimates that for each vessel that lands into Ireland for processing, up to five jobs are created.

High fuel costs mean French vessels could benefit from landing on Irish shores, resulting in significant potential for wealth and job creation in Ireland.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine Simon Coveney said: "The purpose of today is to encourage the French fishing fleet, who are catching hundreds of thousands of tons of Irish fish in Irish waters, and they have a quota to do that, if we can get them to land those fish in Irish ports, we can employ an awful lot more people in coastal communities in Ireland, and we can create an a lot of stimulus by processing those fish"