Fishermen criticise State's naval surveillance

Two years after the fleets of Spain and Portugal were given access to Irish waters, the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation (IS&WFO) has criticised the Government for not taking full advantage of EU funding to improve surveillance.

The extra funding for monitoring-promised by the EU could also be used for drug interdiction, the IS&WFO said yesterday. A ship carrying illegal substances has 20 times easier access to Europe through the Irish corridor than by any other route. The recent detention of a vessel carrying over £100 million worth of cocaine in Kinsale, Co Cork, indicates that many more have "slipped through the net".

Agreement by the EU to fund both operational and capital costs of Irish fisheries surveillance was a key element of the package negotiated to allow Spain and Portugal into the 50-mile-wide Irish Box in 1996. The Iberian states had been given only limited access to the lucrative waters for the first 10 years of EU membership.

The IS&WFO, protesting vigorously at the time, pointed out that the deal did not cover Spanish "flag of convenience" vessels, registering in Britain and Ireland to fish under those quotas.

"We were given several sops," the IS&WFO secretary, Mr Tom Hassett, said. "One of the main benefits was a promise of extra Naval Service vessels. What has happened? Nothing. The sop was a red herring." "Ireland has one State vessel for every 13,000 square miles of economic zone," Mr Hassett said. "Can you imagine one Garda barracks to cover the same area?"