Fishermen ‘facing ruin’ over spiralling fuel costs

IRISH fishermen are facing financial ruin because of spiralling fuel costs, an EU delegation to west Cork heard yesterday.

Immediate intervention at national and EU level was necessary to prevent an “unprecedented crisis”, members of the EU Parliament’s Fisheries Committee heard during a meeting with Irish fishery representatives in Castletownbere.

“Fuel prices are absorbing in excess of 60% of operating costs and many fishermen are facing economic ruin,” Gerard O’Flynn, chief executive of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation, told delegates including MEPs Colm Burke and Brian Crowley.

Mr O’Flynn called for total transparency in relation to any “economic intervention” by individual countries to their fishing sectors.

“It is essential to realise that Irish fishermen are targeting the same fish in the same waters as France, Spain and the UK. Accordingly, any interventions that convey an unfair advantage on a single group would completely undermine the integrity of the Common Fisheries policy.”

Following the meeting, Colm Burke MEP said while there was nothing to prevent the Irish Government from making a submission on some form of intervention for Irish fishermen on the fuel issue, it had not done so.

“We have already raised the issue of fuel subsidies with the EU Fisheries Commissioner, Joe Borg, and the response was that the commission has not received any proposals from the French government on subsidies.”

However, he said the French government had put subsidies in place without approval from the commission. Mr Burke said there was a regulation which allowed the Irish Government to give up to €30,000 to individual enterprises over a three year period, but this had not been done.

“The Irish Government continues to turn a deaf ear to concerns expressed by the fishing industry, preferring to place the emphasis on the enforcement of legislation.”

The delegation also heard there would be increased dumping of cod this year unless an immediate review of the 2008 quota was carried out.

There is “a huge gap between the current scientific assessment of the stock and real-time experience of fishermen,” Mr O’Flynn said.

Ireland was facing a situation where the quota would be exhausted by mid-year he said.

“It simply defies logic that fishermen are asked to dump perfectly good fish caught as part of a typical mixed catch in order to stay legal. The stock is in a much stronger state than is reflected in the current quota,” he said.

The need for a level playing field for fisheries enforcement on an EU level was also highlighted. “The industry is being undermined by the lack of international standardisation and transparency in relation to enforcement and quota administration,” warned Mr O’Flynn.