The Minister for the Marine, Mr Ahern, says he will oppose a total ban on cod fishing in the Irish Sea despite yesterday's recommended moratorium by international scientists.
Mr Ahern said he was not dismissing the evidence of critical cod and whiting stock levels presented by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). However, this evidence had to be compared and verified with Ireland's own research information which was more "intense and localised", and also "the practical experience of fishermen", he said.
Mr Ahern, who was speaking at a sod-turning ceremony to mark construction of the new €40 million headquarters in Oranmore, Galway, for the Marine Institute, said the European Commission would be basing its proposals for fishing levels next year on the ICES evidence. "However, the EU did not go as far as ICES last year," he said, referring to the scientists' recommendations for 2003.
"I think they have to bear in mind the balance between keeping a fishing industry going, and making sure that the stocks are conserved," the Minister said.
"It is getting more difficult. But to be fair, the fishing industry and its members have shown over the years that they are more than adept at coming forward with conservation plans and sticking to them. It remains to be seen how long that this can be maintained."
The EU's response last year to introduce a new "days at sea" regime for the British fishing fleet, which was extended to the north-west Irish coast, was a "blunt instrument", and one which the Minister would not support.
The local Galway economy is expected to benefit by €17 million annually as a result of moving the Marine Institute headquarters from Dublin, the Minister said yesterday when he turned the sod at Oranmore.
Accompanying him was the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Mr Tom Parlon, announced that work is due to begin on site in a fortnight and that the new building, designed by Mr Ciaran O'Connor of the Office of Public Works, is expected to be finished a bit behind schedule in 2005, when over 160 staff will be based there.
Prof Noel Wilkins, of NUI, Galway, said the site at Rinville had been home to a State-sponsored experimental oyster station in 1903, and a floating laboratory was moored in New Harbour in 1917. In 1973, a national Decca maritime navigation station was established on the site and functioned until 2000, when satellite technology for navigation made it obsolete. The institute has moved to interim facilities at Parkmore, Galway, since March of last year and almost 100 of its staff are now based there.
Mr Michael Coyle, chief executive of Galway Chamber of Commerce, said that the decision to relocate the institute to the west was "very significant" in terms of continuing economic development of the region.