Safety rules ‘could cost 200 fishery jobs’

SOME 200 workers, including 75 in the south-west, could be forced out of the fishing industry as a result of government regulations designed to improve safety on smaller trawlers.

The Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation (IS&WFPO) Ltd, which represents the owners of many of the whitefish vessels, also said the knock-on effect could threaten up to 600 related onshore jobs.

The new regulation which came into effect on October 1 requires all fishing vessels between 15 and 24 metres to undergo a survey to secure a Fishing Vessel Safety Certificate in order to continue fishing.

There are 99 vessels in the category and, as of last Monday, 63 had applied to undertake the survey. As a result, 36 vessels have ceased fishing, the IS&WFPO’s chief executive officer Eibhlín O’Sullivan, said.

She said the owners of smaller fishing vessels between 15 metres and 18 metres in length could not afford to go through the certification process governing vessels up to 24m and will have to give up fishing.

She called on the Government to amend the regulations and create new criteria for the smaller vessels.

The IS&WFPO acknowledged the objective of the new regulation was to ensure the safety of all those on board fishing vessels, but the mechanism being used was not correct and had devastated the owners of vessels between 15m and 18m, she claimed.

“These are fishermen who have fished all their lives who would be able to continue fishing for another 10 or 20 years, but now no longer have the means to do so,” she said.

“No one appreciates the importance of safety more than this organisation and our members. However, given that the same standards are being applied to 24m vessels as to 15m vessels, which in reality are used for very different types of fishing and encounter different environmental conditions, the standards being applied are not appropriate for these smaller vessels,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

She said Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has been requested on a number of occasions to create another category for the 15m to 18m vessels but he has not done so.

“The loss of 200 jobs in the current economic climate is devastating to any industry, but none more so than the fishing industry which tends to be a generational one,” she said.

“We estimate these 200 jobs off-shore translate into a further 600 on-shore jobs which will be lost as a result of these vessels ceasing fishing.”