Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney has welcomed agreement between the EU, Norway and the Faroe islands on share-out of the north-east Atlantic mackerel stock, which is Ireland's most lucrative fishery.
Significantly, Iceland is not a party to the five-year agreement, which was secured in London today after a long-running dispute beween coastal states over the valuable migratory stock.
Under the deal, the Faroe islands fleet will be subject to fixed quotas, giving it 12.6 per cent of the stock.
Mr Coveney said that he differed with the EU on "significant aspects of the deal", which will set some 15.6 per cent of the north-east Atlantic stock aside for Iceland, Greenland and Russia.
However, he said that he welcomed the fact that Norway was given no additional access to fish mackerel in EU waters, and said that the outcome would also increase the amount of mackerel available to the Irish fleet by over 60 per cent, from a current 65,000 tonnes to 105,000 tonnes.
Last year, EU Maritime Affairs Commissioner Maria Damanaki had agreed to imposition of trade sanctions in retaliation for what was termed "Olympic fishing" to unsustainable levels by Iceland and the Faeroese, both of which were anxious to increase their share since the stock changed its migratory route.
However, there was a marked reluctance by a number of EU states to implement sanctions, given the dependence on Iceland for fish imports.
The €1 billion north-east Atlantic mackerel fishery is worth over 600 million in value to the EU, with a value of over €125 million to Ireland as this State's most lucrative stock.
The stock has always spawned off the south-west Irish coast, and moved up via Scotland and the Shetland Islands to western Norway and the North Sea, but since 2006, the migration route has swung north-west into Icelandic waters.
Iceland has said that EU states and Norway had not recognised its entitlement to a share of the fishery until 2010.
