But dwindling stocks real issue - €280m fishing deal welcome

THERE is a sense of deja vu about the latest deal on Irish fish quotas. 

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, has secured 233,500 tonnes of quotas, worth €280m, for Irish fishermen for 2017. This represents an increase of 17,390 tonnes over 2016. The minister finalised the deal in the early hours of Wednesday morning, following two days of negotiations at the Fisheries Council, in Brussels.

Switch back to December 16, 2015, and then fishing minister, Simon Coveney, who was in Brussels. It was also in the early hours of a Wednesday morning that he secured — again after two days of negotiations — a 10% increase in our whitefish quota for 2016. His deal was valued at €131m, but Minister Creed’s is more than double that.