Fishing leaders await investigation over quota flouting claims

FISHING leaders insisted yesterday they were waiting for a garda investigation to be completed before commenting on claims the industry was extensively flouting EU and national laws.

Fraud squad officers, it was claimed in a Sunday newspaper, had unearthed evidence of "massive overfishing", during raids last October, in all major ports on the western seaboard.

It was also claimed that trawlers had illegally landed about three times more fish than quotas permitted.