Six -to 12-mile fishery limits should be extended to 30 to 50 miles, according to fishing industry organisations in some EU member-states.
Deliberate offences, such as the alleged incident off the south-west coast earlier this week, should also be met by a total ban on fishing in the particular area, respondents to an EU Commission questionnaire on the forthcoming review of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) said.
The questionnaire, which was the first step in the EU Commission's consultation on the review, received one of the highest levels of response from Ireland, Commission officials said in Cork yesterday.
Some 347 detailed questionnaires were dispatched to fishing organisations and representative interests.
Among issues highlighted in the replies were the failure of the Common Fisheries Policy, the need for more controls and surveillance on a Europe-wide basis, extension of coastal limits and conservation "boxes", the need for more technical measures to protect stocks and widespread dissatisfaction with the EU's international agreements involving nonEU states. More than one-third of the EU's fisheries budget is spent on these agreements with African and other states, to service the EU's deep-sea fleets.
Mr Mark Lochrin, of the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation (IFPO), challenged Commission officials at yesterday's meeting on the distribution of the questionnaires and the content.
The core issue was whether there was going to be a change in the basic approach, learning from the Norwegian model of resource husbandry and harvesting with strict controls, he said. Under the current system, "plunderers rule OK", he said, and there was no confidence in figures issued by the EU. "No one is managing this resource," he claimed.