Fishing groups welcome €266m deal on quotas

Fishing groups have given a broad welcome to the annual deal struck by the EU on fish quotas worth €266m for next year.

Negotiations at the council of fisheries ministers concluded in Brussels yesterday at 7.30am with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed revealing that 40,168 tonnes of whitefish quotas had been agreed, worth €152m, alongside Ireland’s quota for prawns which amounts to 10,729 tonnes, valued at €83m.

The minister said the whitefish quota represented an 8% increase in value from last year and a 3% increase in volume, with a 15% increase in prawns, worth over €10.6m directly to the Irish fleet. He described it as “the biggest single increase in over a decade”.