A clear message was sent from the European Parliament not to interfere with the "Irish Box" system yesterday, whereby only 40 Spanish fishing vessels are allowed to fish there at any given time.
Irish MEPs were claiming this was a victory for Ireland that would strengthen the hand of the Minister for Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, when the issue comes up for decision at the next fisheries meeting on June 11th.
The three to one vote by parliamentarians calling for no change to the present system for at least 10 years was a major personal victory for the Fianna Fail MEP for Connacht/Ulster, Mr Sean Ó Neachtain, who had resigned from the influential Agriculture Committee, which had presented a report to the Parliament on the vexed issue of Spanish access to the 50-mile zone around Ireland's coast.
This allowed him table an amendment to leave the situation as it currently is, to allow the endangered whitestock fish in Irish waters to build up.
The parliament voted by 334 votes to 108 on the amendment to recognise the importance of the Irish Box as a conservation zone in one of the EU's most sensitive nursery and spawning grounds.
"The MEPs are sending out an unequivocal message that they do not support greater access to Irish fishing waters for Spanish fishermen," Mr Ó Neachtain said.
"This vote should strengthen the negotiating hand of the Irish Government in the present negotiations concerning the future of the Irish Box and concerning access to these waters by Spanish fishermen," he added.
During the debate all of the MEPs from the island of Ireland, with the exception of the Green Party, supported the amendment, including Dr Ian Paisley.
The Green MEP, Ms Patricia MacKenna, claimed Ireland had scored an "own goal" when MEPs voted to freeze in place, with no changes for the next 10 years, the current regime.
"This position is lawfully untenable since it ignores the legal complaint of the Spanish that they are being discriminated against," she said. "It is also naïve to believe or claim that this will now keep the Spanish out of Irish waters. It may be a good PR stunt for Parliament but will be ignored by Council."
She said the stocks in the waters concerned were depleted so the status quo had obviously not worked and the regime needed to be reviewed. To keep the current system in place for another 10 years was not sustainable and was also irresponsible.
The Fine Gael MEP for Leinster. Ms Avril Doyle, said the Commission was forcing the Irish fishing fleet into bankruptcy. She said the Irish Box had to be protected from over-fishing because of the large numbers of juvenile fish there.