The final fisheries deal which emerged from last week's marathon European Council meeting has confirmed the worst suspicions of the most cynical observers, with Spain and France being net beneficiaries.
The council, which had the responsibility of drawing up the future of Europe's fishing industry for the next couple of decades, descended into the usual political horse-trading which is a feature of the annual quota talks. As an exercise in managing a common resource, it proved to be anything but democratic or transparent.
Fortunately for the Irish Sea and Celtic fleets, conservation programmes for cod and hake pioneered by Ireland have been allowed to continue for now. That is cold comfort when the overall issue of the Irish Box is unresolved, and a new effort limitation has been put on the north-west fleet from Galway to Donegal.
The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern, has expressed his determination to see the Irish Box issue through to the European Court of Justice, if a satisfactory agreement cannot be reached before then. However, the Minister's actual commitment must be questioned, when he is also attempting to put a positive gloss on a very poor deal. There are echoes here of the Taoiseach's promise to raise the Irish fishing issue "on the margins" of the EU summit in Copenhagen earlier this month - and one wonders what he did actually say to his Spanish counterpart, Mr Aznar? Certainly, several key elements have been retained, but few would have censured the Minister if he had presented the outcome for what it was.
Instead, the Minister has aroused the ire of the industry over his defence of the package, and his assessment of Ireland's share of quotas - an assessment which is at variance with his own advisory group on the Common Fisheries Policy. A rift has now developed between the Government and the industry after several years of close co-operation.
If there is one significant development in the context of these two islands, it is the unity of purpose among fishermen from Scotland's Peterhead to Donegal's Killybegs, and from Fraserburgh to Fenit. Two weeks ago, Northern Ireland fishermen offered a surplus prawn quota to their counterparts in the Republic, when the prawn fishery closed here due to quota limits. The two governments should listen to their coastal electorates, look at their marine resources, and begin working together on a more enlightened management system for "blue Europe".