The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, will put the case for fishermen at a three-hour Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
He will outline fishermen's concerns about oil prices in a fuel intensive industry. He will also address the threat to the industry caused by a large drop-off in numbers involved in the sector.
Yesterday's 24-hour tie-up by most of the State's fishing fleet aimed to highlight those difficulties, both for Government and the general public. Mr Joey Murrin, outgoing chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation (KFO), believes the protest "will ensure that our problems will be considered by the Cabinet. This tie-up is in support of the Minister, who said he would have discussions on our proposals with the Government."
However, the Minister has told fishermen that fuel can only be addressed in the context of the Budget.
The organisation's demands, supported by some 90 per cent of the State's fishing fleet, include:
fuel oil being capped at 20 pence a litre
a £5,000 extra tax allowance for deckhands
An EU tie-up scheme similar to set-aside for farmers.
The tie-up was supported by the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation (IFPO), and by the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation. Mr Murrin said the KFO was happy with the response to its call for the stoppage.
He stressed that the increase in fuel prices meant crew members were getting between £75 and £100 less a week. Wages depend on the costs of fishing trips - expenses, including fuel, are deducted before the fishermen are paid.
He said the economy had crippled the fishing industry. "A guy tending a cement mixer for £400 a week isn't going to go out to sea for £200."
The KFO had hurt nobody by its protests. "It's now at the stage where it's more profitable to tie up. Twenty-four hours is nothing. In six weeks' time if something isn't done immediately, boats will be tying up permanently."
Mr Mark Loughran, chief executive of the IFPO, said the purpose of the protest "is to highlight that there is a difficulty, which the Minister has accepted. He wouldn't, however, appear to accept the degree of urgency there is. It's a difficult issue for him to address. What is needed is a fuel subsidy, but how that can be delivered is not an easy question to answer."
Mr Loughran said "fuel costs are approaching treble what they were last year". He said marine gas oil started off last year at 12 pence a litre and has now risen to about 32 pence. "It gets critical after 20 pence and at 32 pence it is affecting viability."
The Irish fishing fleet uses 80 million litres of marine gas oil a year, costing the industry an extra £15 million in the first eight months of this year.
Mr Jason Whooley, manager of the South and West Fishermen's Organisation, pointed to the 180 per cent increase in fuel costs since January 1999. Fuel costs now account for 80 per cent of a fishing vessel's expenses he said. The Irish Fishermen's Organisation did not support the protest. Its general secretary, Mr Frank Doyle, believed it was putting on pressure that could have been misinterpreted. Mr Doyle called for a radical overhaul of the social welfare scheme to take account of the situation of fishermen whose situation, he said, was different from people in other sectors.
