Ireland worst for EU fish quota breaches

IRELAND had the worst record in Europe for breaching EU fishing quotas, according to the European Commission.

Its latest fisheries “scoreboard” reveals illegal overfishing - blamed for the failure of dwindling stocks to recover - is still a major problem.

It is considering taking the Government to court for not complying with Community Law, which could see Ireland fined millions of euro.

The European Court of Justice recently found Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Finland and Sweden guilty of exceeding the fishing quotas set by EU ministers each year.

Later this year, an EU fisheries control agency comes into force, improving co-operation between national monitoring teams and the commission’s 30-strong inspectorate.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said: “Failure to enforce fisheries measures works against the interests of fishermen as it leads to overfishing, depleted fish stocks, smaller catches and shrinking incomes.”

Jason Whooley of the Irish South and West fishermen’s organisation said of the report: “I would not read anything into it until we see the detail.”

The commission admitted Ireland’s record is based on the overfishing of black scabbard, mackerel and lobster, for which Irish fishermen have a small quota.

The Department of the Marine was found guilty of not returning any data about the number of days the fleet spent at sea for the second year in a row.

It also failed for the third year in a row to submit details of serious breaches of the rules by fishermen.

Each year it blamed problems with their computer systems. A department spokesperson said they were looking at the report and may respond.

The European Commission will decide in the next few weeks whether to take a case against Ireland for failing to comply with Community Law.

A similar case against France resulted in a €20 million fine and €57m imposed for each six-month period during which the money was not paid.

However, the size of any fine is related to the country’s size and ability to pay and would only be imposed if the commission proved that Ireland continued to ignore the law.

Mr Borg said the report showed that over-fishing was still happening.

“Without controls, overfishing will flourish. The winners are those who cheat and can make a lot of money. The losers are the fishermen who abide by the rules,” he said.

The number of quotas overshot dropped from 2% in 2003 to 1.8% in 2004 while overfishing varied from less than 1% to 68%, according to the report.