Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, met today with Irish fishing industry representatives in the National Seafood Centre, Clonakilty to discuss the state of play on Brexit and possible serious impacts facing the sector.
“A no deal Brexit poses serious challenges for the Irish Fishing industry including the potential loss of access to UK waters where we catch over a third of our quotas,” the Minister said.
“We do not know what action the UK may take in relation to fisheries in a no deal situation, but we need to prepare for the worst case scenario whereby the UK would exclude EU fishing vessels from its waters.”
Fully Prepared
The Minister updated the stakeholders on the continuing preparedness work that the Government as a whole was doing and the specific work in relation to fisheries at both national and EU level.
“Today was about ensuring that our fishing representatives are fully informed of the preparedness work that is underway. If the EU fleet is excluded from UK waters it would have serious implications for the Irish fleet,” he continued.
“To minimise that possible impact, there must be a co-ordinated EU level response by the Commission, relevant Member States and fisheries stakeholders.”
Minister Creed updated stakeholders on EU legislative proposals dealing with the possible use of temporary cessation measures, quota swapping with the UK and potential reciprocal access.
He said that it is clear that more measures will be required, something that he made clear to Fisheries Commissioner, Karmenu Vella, last week.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
