More than 100 fishermen from the south and east coast of Ireland staged a protest at Waterford Port yesterday over the detention of fishing vessels without licences.
The fishermen and up to 40 fishing vessels congregated at the North Quays in Waterford city over delays to the issuing of sea-fishing licences, which are causing severe financial hardship to fishermen around Ireland.
Mr Michael Walsh, chairman of the Irish South & East Fishermens' Organisation, said fishermen were risking arrest to protect their livelihoods.
"Fishing trawlers need a licence before they can legally go to sea and normally this only takes a month or two," he said.
"Some of our members who hold full required replacement capacity have been tied up for up to six months awaiting licensing, with one member recently issued with an arrest for attempting to fish without a licence."
Mr Walsh pointed out that his members were fishing within their allowed tonnage, and said the problem lay with the Government.
"There is an overall weight for the Irish fleet. Vessels are measured per tonne, and the overall aggregate for this is around 87,000 tonnes under EU regulations, but for some reason the Irish fleet has exceeded this tonnage," he said.
"The Department of the Marine has brought out new proposals recently that appear to be dealing with the problem of over-capacity. Some of the boats that had more capacity in the past have been affected," said Mr Walsh.
"Where you have a fisherman bringing in a new boat, it should be a simple fact of transferring your old tonnage from one boat to the next.
"However, this now appears to be a problem, and our members don't know what is going on," he said.