Minister of State for Fisheries Tony Killeen is today attending an EU agriculture and fisheries council meeting in Brussels that will be closely watched by Irish fishermen.
Issues affecting the European fishing industry are to be discussed at the meeting.
Mr Killeen said he would push new proposals at the meeting that would put the onus on member states, where fish was landed or imported, to verify they were caught using legal means.
The Minister told the Dáil last week that 500,000 tonnes of illegal fisheries products, valued at €1.1 billion or more, were imported into the EU annually.
The Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) is seeking temporary tie-up aid for vessels hit by the fuel-price crisis, although the EU seems to have ruled out funding for this.
Protesting fishermen recently staged blockades at Cork and Waterford ports to protest the high cost of fuel and the impact of cheap fish imports, although those blockades were not officially sanctioned by the FIF.
Mr Killeen yesterday announced a €41 million scheme to decommission 46 fishing vessels.
The 2008 Decommissioning Scheme was launched in February to withdraw large fishing vessels from the whitefish sector.
Minister of State for Fisheries Tony Killeen
Around 46 boats over 18 metres and with a combined capacity of 7,590 gross tones are expected to leave the whitefish fish over the coming weeks.
Mr Killeen said that 33 per cent of the over-18 metre whitefish fleet involving 73 large vessels will have been decommissioned since 2005.
He said the results would ensure a "significant boost to the economics of those boats remaining in the fleet" as whitefish and prawn catches taken by the vessels approved for scrapping were valued at €20 million.
"This will, over the next five years, result in up to €100 million in additional catching opportunities for those boats that remain," he said. Some 27 whitefish boats were decommissioned between 2005 and 2006.
Fishermen, who have suspended port blockades planned for this month, are seeking an extension of decommissioning to smaller vessels.