Policy stops €18m trawlers fishing

CORK county councillors have requested an urgent meeting with Minister of the Marine Dermot Ahern to discuss a controversial new licensing policy which has effectively beached two new state-of-the-art trawlers that cost their owners €18 million.

Cllr Noel Harrington secured the agreement of fellow councillors to seek the meeting following the recent publication of the Sea Fisheries Licensing Policy, which he described as “a crippling blow” to the south west region.

The policy announcement last Wednesday, coincided with the arrival of the latest state-of-the-art vessel to join the Castletownbere fishing fleet, the MFV Ronan Ross.