The Minister for the Marine, Mr Ahern, forced the Irish Box controversy back up the EU agenda yesterday when he refused to discuss European Commission proposals on conserving cod and hake stocks before the Box issue is dealt with.
Ireland has already rejected a compromise EU proposal on retaining the 50-mile fishery exclusion zone.
The compromise proposal involved a smaller sea area, similar to the area earmarked for hake recovery plans.
The Minister now expects that it will be the autumn before the issue is resolved.
The Irish Box dates back to the Spanish accession to the EU in 1985/86, and involves limiting Spanish access to the area to 40 boats at any one time.
Last December, Spain challenged the continued validity of the exclusion zone, through a legal opinion issued by the EU Council.
The European Commission tried to have the issue dealt with bilaterally between Ireland and Spain, but Ireland was successful in maintaining that it was a matter to be handled at EU level.
The Minister, who was attending an EU fisheries council in Brussels yesterday, said he was "disappointed" at the failure to resolve the issue at this stage, but welcomed the commitment given by his Italian counterpart, Mr Giovanni Alemanno, to make it a priority under the Italian EU presidency.
The Minister said his fundamental objective was to protect fish stocks, while maintaining sustainable fishing for Irish coastal communities, in spite of a firm attempt by Spain to gain access to the area.
The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources maintains that Spain has not exceeded the limit of 40 vessels within the zone to date this year. However, this is a slightly moot point, as Spain stopped sending Ireland a list of vessels licensed to fish within the area last December.
Also, Naval Service patrol vessels have been asked not to detain any vessels which may be in breach of the limit, but to issue "warnings". As a result, there have been very few detentions of non-Irish vessels by patrol ships this year.
Irish fishing industry representatives who were in Brussels yesterday said they expected a strong push to be made by the Italian presidency to resolve the issue before the next Council of Ministers meeting in late September.
However, the industry's confidence in Irish negotiators has been shaken by last week's vote in favour of an EU proposal to limit fleet size, which could wipe out Irish skippers' tonnage entitlements by some €120 million.
"We understand that the result of the vote may have to go before the EU Commissioners, which could become very political, but the net effect is that a new wave of uncertainty has been created in a sector which badly needs some stability," said Mr Jason Whooley of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation.
He added the industry would be anxious to ensure the Irish Box issue was not caught up in European Commission recovery plans for hake and cod in the North Sea, Irish Sea and south and western waters.