O'Toole supports calls for radical reform of Fisheries policy
Published: 26 January, 2006
Cllr Larry O'Toole, Sinn Féin General Election Candidate in Dublin North East,
today supported calls for a radical reform of the Common Fisheries Policy
to restore national sovereignty over the sector and ensure that the interests of
Irish fishing communities are given priority. Sinn Fein Deputy Martin Ferris
has met with the Minister for the Marine, who he requested to make this a key
issue within the EU.
Councilor O'Toole stated, "The current plight of our fishing industry today is
appalling. In Howth, where generations of families have been involved in fishing,
there is a real struggle to maintain a living. These people are being ignored and
worse by successive Governments. The Minister has to face up to reality and
tackle the issue."
Deputy Ferris asked, "Would the Minister not agree that the Common
Fisheries Policy has delivered a bad deal for Irish fishing communities,
and that a potentially valuable natural resource - one of the few assets we
actually had on entry to the EEC - has been squandered because effective
control over our fisheries has been surrendered to Brussels.
He said, "This state has nominal sovereignty over 11% of EU fishing waters
and yet Irish fishermen only take around 4% of the EU catch. Since 1973 not
only have billions of Euro in value of fish been taken by foreign fleets
with no advantage to the sector here, but that free-for-all has resulted in
the depletion of many of the species around our coast.
"Does he therefore agree that the fishing policy is in need of a reform far
more radical than that which the Common Agricultural Policy was subject to
in the last number of years? And that part of such a reform ought to
include the reclaiming of national jurisdiction over our fishing waters and
the implementation of a nationally designed strategy to ensure not only
that stocks are preserved but that Irish fishing communities are the
beneficiaries of the sector in the long term. And that as part of this
there is a radical switch from the current system whereby fish from Irish
waters end up being processed abroad, to one where it is used as the basis
of a thriving processing sector.
"Will he finally undertake to make the demand for a radical reform of the
CFP a priority, and that this is placed on the EU agenda as a matter of
urgency."
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