A dispute has broken out between some of Ireland's top fishing vessel owners and the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, over a new system of managing the State's mackerel quota.
A group of 23 mackerel vessel owners intend to take the Minister to court over the new restrictions, claiming that the plan is discriminatory and limits their earnings.
The fishermen claim that the plan will force skippers to land mackerel catches in Irish ports, where prices may not be as good as elsewhere.
Dr Woods has confirmed that legal action has been initiated, but has said that the Department has no option but to manage the fishery in this way.
A spokesman for the Minister has also confirmed that the European Commission is still investigating Irish mackerel exports in relation to the annual quota.
This is part of an investigation taking place in all European states involved in the mackerel fishery, on foot of a complaint by one member-state of widespread quota infringements, the spokesman said.
The legal action by the mackerel fishermen is supported by the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation (KFO) and the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation. The group intends to seek a judicial review of the system, which sets weekly catch limits in the licence conditions given to the mackerel tank boats, including the Killybegs flagship, Veronica.
"We realise that we may not get to court before the fishery is over, but there is a principle that has to be established here," Mr Joey Murrin, chief executive of the KFO, said yesterday.
Market pressures and the migrations of mackerel are such that skippers have to be given freedom to fish their quotas as they see fit, he said. Mackerel was at its most valuable at this time of year, when the fish were moving westwards from Norway to the north of Scotland.
Mr Murrin said that the problem was compounded by the refusal of Irish fish processors to make a price offer for catches while vessels were at sea. Britain issued no such restrictions on its mackerel vessels, he said, and Irish skippers should have the freedom to maximise their earnings by landing into markets where the best price prevailed.
The legal challenge comes at a time of increasing pressure on mackerel boat owners, largely due to poor prices and uncertain markets. Irish vessel owners have received a bad press abroad.
The Department of the Marine has dissociated itself from comments made by one of its senior officials in a recent profile of Killybegs skippers in the Danish newspaper, Berlingske Tidende.
Ireland intends to support France in a legal action it is taking to the European Court of Justice over the ban on the use of drift-nets for tuna, due to come into force in 2002.
