Fine Gael today called on Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Brendan Smith to seek an equitable deal on any State-aid funded financial package.
“It is clear that without a financial rescue package the fishing industry will collapse,” Fine Gael fisheries and food spokesman Michael Creed said today during a Dáil debate on fisheries.
“It is preferable that this aid is EU funded but if, as the European Commission is proposing, it is State aid, the Irish Government must first and foremost step up to that challenge and put forward a suitable package.
“Furthermore, the Irish Government must ensure that the Commission’s decision to permit State aid is applied equitably across the EU. Otherwise, Ireland could be at a significant disadvantage to its main Spanish and French competitors if they benefit from their government’s State aid package to a greater extent,” Mr Creed said.
He added that Ireland must seek “a uniform and balanced approach” to enforcement of fisheries regulation throughout the EU, and criticised the Irish decision to impose criminal sanctions against fishermen as being “out of kilter”.
Sinn Féin spokesman Martin Ferris condemned what he claimed was decades of betrayal of the Irish fisheries dating back to the talks for EU entry in the early 1970s.
"If there was ever an example of an aspect of Irish life that has suffered from EU bureaucracy it is the fishing sector,” he said.
He also condemned the sanctions facing fishermen, saying: “An entire section of the Criminal Justice Act is devoted to fishermen . . . No other profession or trade in the state was given such attention.”
The Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) yesterday cautiously welcomed a proposed emergency aid package for the EU fishing industry.
Irish fishermen recently staged blockades at Cork and Waterford ports in protest at high fuel costs and cheap fish imports, although those blockades were not officially sanctioned by the FIF.
