Irish and Spanish fishermen have the worst record for overfishing in the EU, and the Government is still not providing the European Commission with enough information on Irish fishing activities.
These are two key findings of the fisheries scorecard 2005 published by the EU yesterday, which warns that member states need to do more to protect dwindling fish stocks.
The scorecard shows that Ireland and Spain overfished three separate species.
However, the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation has accused the commission of issuing "misleading information".
Irish fishermen exceeded their quotas for mackerel, Dublin Bay prawns and the black scabbard fish - in this case by as much as 15 per cent of the total allowable catch, the commission said.
The commission criticised Ireland for failing to provide any data on the "fishing effort" undertaken by its fleet for the third consecutive year. Fishing effort is the number of days fishermen spend at sea and is crucial for stock control. The Government also failed to file its report on the practice of shark finning - where fishermen cut off a shark's fins and throw the rest of the shark overboard to rot.
The scorecard shows that the commission is taking six infringement proceedings against Ireland for breaches of EU fisheries law. Four of these cases relate to overfishing, one for failure to provide data to the commission and a further case relates to Ireland's failure to set up adequate control and inspection procedures.
Overall there are 69 cases pending at the European Court of Justice relating to breaches of EU fisheries law. A third of these cases relate to overfishing.
The Government's Fisheries Bill, which initially planned to introduce criminal sanctions and higher fines for fishermen who break the rules, is back before the Dáil next week. Environmentalists fear it will be emasculated following strong lobbying.