EU fisheries ministers yesterday gave a firm rebuff to Commission proposals to cut fleet capacities by up to 40 per cent over the next six years.
Alter the meeting a spokesman for the Fisheries Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, could only take small comfort in a reference in the ministerial conclusions to "general agreement on the necessity to reduce fishing mortality rates to acceptable levels in respect of critical stocks."
Solutions would have to be found which were "appropriate, equitable, transparent and soundly based".
The Commission has been sent back to the drawing board. Its aggregate capacity reduction rates are "too high", the ministers said, and its scientific evidence and analysis came under fierce criticism from 12 member states in their statement.
Now the Minister for Fisheries, Mr Barrett, and the Commissioner, Ms Bonino, will make a tour of capitals for bilateral meetings ahead of a renewed discussion on November 22nd. It is difficult to see how agreement will be possible by then, or even this year.
Mr Barrett said yesterday: "Nobody denies there is a real problem and that we must ensure the survival of stocks. I, as president, intend taking charge of the issue, meeting all my colleagues throughout Europe and producing a package broadly acceptable to them.".
Reflecting a lowering of their ambitions, Commission sources were yesterday suggesting that with serious reductions in fishing effort - taking in rest days, new net mesh rules, biological rest periods, stricter controls on fraud and illegal fishing - it was possible to talk of fleet reductions of 5 per cent on average.
Mr Barrett's problems are exacerbated, however, by the repeated declaration by the British Fisheries Minister, Mr Tony Baldry, that Britain will not consider and compulsory reduction in its fleet until the issue of "quota hopping", notably by the Spaniards, is resolved.
This is the system whereby Spanish boats take fish from the British or Irish quota by buying or registering as British or Irish boats and flying a flag of convenience.
With Mr Barrett in the chair, the Irish case was presented to ministers by the Secretary of the Department of Fisheries, Mr Tom Carroll. He said that they had to strike a balance between the scientific evidence and the social and economic effects of cutbacks on vulnerable communities, a point strongly echoed by, the French.
Mr Carroll supported the Commission's proposal to exempt small coastal vessels from the cutbacks, but said that it was important to set a higher limit than Ms Bonino's seven metres.
There was broad support for a raising of the exemption limit to 14 metres, although Ms Bonino warned that it could exempt 84 per cent of fleet.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on the marine, Mr Michael Smith, said it was Mr Barrett's "duty" to stop Commissioner Bonino's plan, which he said would "tear the £180 million Irish fishing industry apart".
Mr Frank Doyle, general secretary of the Irish Fishermen's Organisation, said it was "quite clear that those countries with a substantial overcapacity have no interest whatsoever in reducing it.
Mr Donal O'Driscoll, chairman of the Irish Fishermen's Federation and the South and West Fishermen's Organisation, said it was time to get rid of common access to EU fisheries resources. "Common access means nobody gives a damn," he said.
Mr Joey Murrin, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, said "sanity has prevailed for today".