Cork will host the country’s first maritime festival, with industry workshops and a family fun day, which Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney hopes will one day become an event to rival the National Ploughing Championships.

A re-enactment of the inquest into the sinking of the Lusitania, featuring descendents of the jury, will be one of a number of events planned to commemorate next year’s 100th anniversary of the sinking of the liner.

It was great to read a good-news story about the development of the Lower Cork Harbour in your article (Irish Examiner, March 12).

Fáilte Ireland last night sanctioned €2.5m towards the start-up of the Spike Island tourism project.

Time and tide wait for no man, as Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney should well know.

The Naval Service will hold a special decommissioning service on the LÉ Emer next Friday and the vessel is to be sold off through public auction on Oct 23.

The biggest shake-up in the history of the EU’s fisheries policy will massively boost fish stocks and fishermen’s incomes and create a third more jobs in the sector, it was claimed last night.

More than 140 jobs are to be created within the seafood processing industry, it was announced today.

The Irish sea prawn fishery is to re-open immediately, after three days of negotiations at EU level.

BUREAUCRATIC red tape forced a trawler to undertake a perilous 14-hour journey on the same night as the fishing vessels Pere Charles and Honeydew II were lost, it was claimed yesterday.

Minister for the Marine John Browne has today expressed his satisfaction at Ireland's new fishing quotas.

The Government faces a General Election backlash from salmon fishermen after approving an EU ban on drift netting, it was warned today.

FISHERMEN in Waterford who have been battling for years to stop the sale of a section of quay in the city where they land their catches will discover their fate this morning.

FRANK FAHEY will come under growing pressure later this month to resign from his junior ministry if an inquiry into a controversial compensation scheme for fishermen is critical of his role.

VISITING anglers from Britain are thought to be responsible for the introduction of a non-native fish which is now threatening wild trout stocks in the Shannon system.

Minister for the Marine John Browne today announced the allocation of €7.9m in funding for coastal protection and small harbours works throughout the country.

The Irish Fish Producing Organisation is rejecting reports that a large scale illegal fishing scam is operating in Irish waters.

A SMALL number of fishermen have been involved in systematic criminal activity and sophisticated scams, the Minister for the Marine claimed yesterday.

A ROW erupted yesterday over the appointment of a retired politician to the Port of Cork board.

THE giant Aughinish Alumina (AAL) plant on the Shannon Estuary had an unauthorised arrangement with an official of the Shannon Regional Fisheries permitting the company not to report certain breaches of its pollution control licence.

Irish Ferries has presented its employees with an extraordinary predicament which, understandably, has led to threatened strike action over the company’s naked attempt to replace them with lower paid workers.

Fishing organisations have asked the Government to allow them to tie up their vessels in port for a few weeks.

Parents should act as role models for youngsters by always wearing lifejackets when on the water, it was claimed today.

The decision by the Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey, to allow Shell Ireland to commence work on the 75km pipeline, part of its development of the Corrib gasfield, will hardly do anything to defuse the ill-feeling which the company has caused locally.

Leading tourism bodies came together today to call on the Government to introduce a strategy to phase out salmon drift netting due to the damage it causes to angling tourism.

The Government was today urged to intervene in the industrial dispute at Irish Ferries before more jobs are lost.

The Irish Water Safety Association is holding its annual conference in Drogheda today.

The Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation says it welcomes a Garda investigation into fraud allegations in Donegal fisheries.

FOUR marina projects promised almost €6 million in grants in the 2000 Budget received ministerial approval against civil servants’ advice and despite glaring deficiencies in the promoters’ plans.

HAVING read about the latest directive from the Minister for the Marine (Irish Examiner, August 3) I feel compelled to put my views in writing.

EU Marine Ministers have agreed a new fish-protection deal which will include a cap on entry into the new Irish Box.

A new €6 million investment has been announced for Ros-a-Mhíl Fishery Harbour in Co Galway.

Minister for the Marine, Dermot Ahern, today announced a new plan to save the lives of thousands of dolphins killed in fishing nets.

Current fishing methods lead to one quarter of all fish catches being thrown away each year.

Fine Gael Leader, Enda Kenny, has accused the Taoiseach of using taxpayer’s money like a party political slush fund before the last general election.

The Minister for the Marine, Dermot Ahern, has launched a €2m cross-border seafood initiative.

The Minister for the Marine says he has been assured a flotilla of toxic 'ghost ships' which are set to sail near Ireland are safe.

MINISTER for the Marine Dermot Ahern says he has taken action against a company, owned by a board member of the State body responsible for marine protection, which stands accused of dumping thousands of dead fish in a bog.

The Minister for the Marine is to meet his Italian counterpart in Rome tomorrow to discuss the Irish Box.

SOME of the country’s best known fishing ports could face extinction if new landing charges are introduced, fishing groups warned yesterday.

Irish fishermen off the south-west coast are continuing blockades against foreign fishing vessels.

Foreign fisherman are being blocked from entering Irish ports in the south and west.

The European Union has thrashed out a deal for fishermen which will see the Irish and Celtic seas receive a special exemption from some of the most drastic cuts in fish quotas ever agreed by the European Union.

It is vital that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern strongly pressed the case of the Irish fishing industry at the EU summit in Copenhagen, because decisions crucial to its viability will begin to be considered next Monday.