Irish fishing industry organisations have broadly welcomed the outcome of Tuesday's all-night EU negotiations in Brussels on next year's catches and quotas.
Favourable whitefish quotas secured for the Irish fleet include a 20 per cent increase in shares of monkfish off the west coast, and a 50 per cent increase in monkfish off the north-west coast.
Ireland also gained a 9 per cent increase in the hake quota and a 12 per cent increase in prawns.
A conservation plan for cod, however, which was initiated by Irish and British fishing organisations, received a setback during the final talks, when Belgium insisted on a special deal for its beam trawler fleet. While Irish and British vessels have signed up to a three-month ban on cod fishing in three "closed" areas representing 4,500 square miles in total off the Waterford and Cornish coasts, Belgian beamers will fish for one month in the area.
Attempts by Irish whitefish vessels to diversify into catching deepwater species like orange roughy have also been restricted by a decision to initiate "closed" areas west and north-west of the Porcupine Bank.
Mr Lorcan Ó Cinnéide of the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation (IFPO) said fishermen did not question the need for sustainable management of a stock if it was required, but said that this decision was taken before any adequate scientific research had been carried out.
A 27 per cent cut in the Irish mackerel quota has also been described as "devastating" by the industry, but the impact of this will be softened by a 22 per cent increase in blue whiting and maintenance of the horse mackerel share.
Commenting yesterday, the Minister of State for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Pat "the Cope" Gallagher, said he was "reasonably satisfied" with the outcome.
"I feel we have succeeded in achieving a fairly good overall package of fishing possibilities for Irish fishermen. That's not to say that the situation is ideal across all stocks. I know that the reductions in some species, especially mackerel, are going to have a negative impact for some fishermen in the short-term.
"In aggregate, the total volume of whitefish is 33,271 tonnes and for pelagic fishermen the total is 197,373 tonnes."
A row over weighing procedures for mackerel, which had resulted in protests in Killybegs, Co Donegal, earlier this year, also appears to have been resolved with a recognition by the European Commission of Ireland's special position. Irish fish was being weighed with water as Ireland has no quayside processing factories like Scotland and Norway. However, Irish catches can now be weighed in processing factories here under the arrangement worked out with the Minister of State.
Mr Ó Cinnéide said the package gave the lie to popular theories that certain stocks were in terminal decline. The fact that fishermen were now being listened to in relation to their commitment to conservation was also significant, and represented a "platform to build on", he said.
Mr Jason Whooley of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation and Mr Seán O'Donoghue of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation were "very impressed" with the Minister's commitment to the talks.
The Fine Gael marine spokesman, Mr John Perry, said that while he welcomed the increase in quotas for many species, the Government must now draw up a clear strategy to help those mackerel fishermen whose livelihoods would be "destroyed" by the significant reduction in Ireland's mackerel share.
