Minister slams EU fisheries proposals

MARINE Minister Dermot Ahern said he was totally opposed to fisheries proposals at the start of a five-day meeting in Brussels yesterday.

Scientists say the survival of white fish stocks are in the balance but the fishing industry says EU proposals on how to deal with the crisis are nonsense.

At the same time, Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler has warned that if the governments do not agree to cut back on fishing, he will shut down whole regions of the sea from January.