The Government intends to press ahead with its controversial Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Bill in spite of yesterday's protest at four ports by over 200 fishing vessels.
Last night the Government signalled its intention of proceeding with tough new penalties for breaches of the fisheries laws.
The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, has written a letter to an Oireachtas Committee rejecting claims that he could have implemented administrative fines instead.
In the letter, written on the advice of the Attorney General, the Minister told committee chairman Noel O'Flynn that a failure by the Government to take strong action would expose the Irish taxpayer to huge EU fines.
The Minister restated his view that a small number of fishermen have flaunted the current law and made huge amounts of money in the process. He said that under the Irish legal system it would be unconstitutional to levy the administrative fines at the level required to deal with the deliberate infringements of the law.
However, the Fianna Fáil chair of the Joint Oireachtas Commit- tee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel O'Flynn, has appealed to the Government "to re-examine its legal advice at this late stage" in relation to key aspects of the Bill.
The chair of Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Hugh Byrne, who is a former Fianna Fáil junior marine minister, has also said that it was his personal view that the Bill was a "disgrace". The Government appeared to be ignoring the economic importance of the fishing industry in remote coastal areas, at a time of high fuel prices and restrictive quotas, Mr Byrne told The Irish Times. "I am not condoning offences, but the punishment must fit the crime."
Vessels worth over €350 million in total sailed up the river Liffey in Dublin yesterday morning and were accompanied by a contingent of shore supporters.
There were similar peaceful fleet protests in the ports of Cork, Waterford and Galway, before skippers put to sea last night to make up for two days of lost fishing time in good weather.
Port authorities co-operated with the skippers and owners in the first joint protest by four national organisations - the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation, Irish South and East Fishermen's Organisation, Irish Fish Producers' Organisation and Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation.
Mr O'Flynn said the committee would be publishing a summary of its own legal advice early next week which states that there is no impediment to administrative sanctions.
"We'd ask the Government to go back to the Attorney General on the basis of this," he said last night.
However, Labour marine spokesman Tommy Broughan called into question yesterday the actual position of Mr O'Flynn and Fianna Fáil colleagues on the legislation. "They have, in fact, voted on four occasions for this Bill in its entirety and have shafted their own Minister, Pat 'The Cope' Gallagher, who is set to lose his job in the next couple of weeks," Mr Broughan said.
Defending the legislation yesterday, Mr Gallagher said the Government had introduced a series of key amendments already.
The Attorney General had advised against replacing the current criminal system with an administrative system on constitutional grounds, he said. " If the European Union were to mandate particular sanctions, I would have no difficulty, as I'm sure the Government would have no difficulty, in acquiescing with that."
Lorcan Ó Cinnéide of the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation and Jason Whooley of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation said the Minister knew full well that the European Commission did not "mandate" governments in relation to national legislation. The four organisations thanked the port authorities and the Garda and praised the "forbearance" of the Dublin motoring public.