A bold, ambitious programme to buy out a quarter of the entire Irish whitefish fleet has been approved by Cabinet and announced by Minister of State Pat the Cope Gallagher. The €45 million scheme, which will be subject to EU approval, will compensate skippers and owners for tying up vessels which will be destroyed.
If the prospect of "burning boats" sounds somewhat shocking, it has become a fact of life for some years in several EU coastal states, not least Britain. Whitefish vessels comprise the backbone of the Irish fishing fleet, at about 60 per cent of overall tonnage, but owners have found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet within a Common Fisheries Policy which has been widely acknowledged as a management failure.
"There are too many boats chasing too few fish in most species," Padraic White, author of a Government report on the issue, states. The "overwhelming benefits" lie in adjusting the fundamental imbalance between fleet capacity and fishing entitlements, he says. Such benefits will include steadying the current "volatile, economic and financial environment" for boat owners, fishers and processors and removing that "underlying temptation to exceed fishing restrictions" just to survive. Overall, it will result in a "secure future based on attractive economic returns for those remaining in the whitefish and shellfish industries", he says.
Ironically, it was the action of a small number of frustrated and exasperated fishermen in the south-east shellfish fleet, who blockaded Rosslare and Waterford ports for some hours last month, that led to Mr White's report. A limited decommissioning announced last April by the Minister of State was both restrictive and poorly funded, and had other flaws highlighted by industry organisations.
To avert the threat of a further blockade, Mr Gallagher commissioned the review of decommissioning requirements and gave Mr White a tight deadline.
For some skipper owners who have already been forced to quit, the scheme comes too late. Landings in ports like Dingle, Co Kerry, are now dominated by Spanish and French vessels, and even the successful pelagic (mackerel/herring) port of Killybegs has been hard hit over the past two years.
Mr White's report includes provisions for introducing new boats for young entrants, and a special sum of €1.5 million for hardship cases. It is to be hoped that all of his recommendations will be accepted and implemented to guarantee a brighter future for communities on one of Europe's longest coastlines.