Scallop fishermen in the southeast were considering their response last night to a Government offer that aims to avert the threat of further port blockades.
Pat the Cope Gallagher, Minister of State for the Marine, said he had appointed former IDA chief executive Pádraic White to conduct a review of decommissioning requirements for Irish fleets. The deadline for completion of the review of whitefish and shellfish fleets, including scallop vessels, will be the end of June, Mr Gallagher said.
The review would "examine and report on the urgency, scope and cost of the decommissioning requirements" and "problems of eligibility" to "urgently establish a better balance between fleet size and available fishing entitlements".
Mr White, who was chairman of Ireland's strategy review group on the Common Fisheries Policy, is "very familiar with all the issues involved", the Minister said. Fishermen were said to be considering the offer in Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, but there were indications they were not happy with the proposal.
The offer could open up decommissioning payments to scallop vessels for the first time, while falling short of the fishermen's management proposal to tie up larger vessels in return for €4.8 million in compensation.
This tie-up would ensure that some 500 jobs at sea and onshore could be sustained by allowing smaller vessels to continue with the reduced fishery, according to the Irish South and East Fishermen's Organisation, which had won the support of John Browne, Waterford TD and Minister of State for Agriculture, and of fish processors in the region.
The State's first decommissioning scheme for whitefish vessels in financial difficulty was announced in late April by Mr Gallagher. Scallop vessels did not qualify, as they were licensed under a different scheme within the Department of the Marine - a point which Opposition parties have criticised this week.
