Fishing groups say industry won't survive without support

Two of the country's leading fishing organisations have said the sector is in crisis and won't survive without urgent support from the Government and the EU.

They were speaking as fisheries ministers from 27 EU states gather in Cork for an informal meeting, as part of Ireland's presidency of the Council of the EU.

Ireland's fishery and seafood sector employs 10,000 people directly, another 7,000 indirectly and is worth one and a quarter billion euro to the Irish economy every year.

Earlier this month, a report to Marine Minister Timmy Dooley by consultant Kieran Mulvey, found the sector is facing an existential threat.

Yesterday, EU fisheries ministers gathered in Cork for two days of informal meetings on the future of the sector.

Ahead of that, fishing organisations have told RTÉ News they believe the sector is in crisis.

"Crisis yes, certainly - the fishing industry is currently in a state of crisis," said Irish South and East Fish Producers' Organisation CEO John Lynch.

"Why is a big question, but a lack and a loss of fishing opportunities is the main reason why, and we have various reasons for that: poor stock advice for the last number of years has seen serious reductions, reductions in Brexit were very expensive for Ireland and then we have the loss of the Hague Preferences in last year's December Council," he said.

CEO of the Irish South and West Fish Producers' Organisation Patrick Murphy agrees about the state of the sector.

"Well, the industry definitely is on life support," Mr Murphy said.

"Boats are struggling to make the wages. They're struggling to pay the bills, and we need supports if we're going to continue. We're hoping our government is going to live up to their promises and provide those supports."

Among the items on the agenda at the fisheries ministers' plenary session in Cork today is generational renewal - attracting young people into the sector.

The plenary is being chaired by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon.

It is also being attended by the EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, Costas Kadis, and by the Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Fisheries Committee, Paulo Do Nascimento Cabral.

Patrick Murphy also identifies generational renewal as an issue for the sector.

"The Irish industry is in crisis, because it's very hard to entice new, young people into the industry, and generational renewal is a problem, because it's not attractive any more. We have very little fish to catch in our own waters - we only have 14% of the fish and zero catch advice on a lot of the stocks. We need to rebuild these stocks so we need to make it more attractive to [join] our industry and the only way we're going to do that is support from our government and the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy in Europe, to make sure that Ireland get a fair share of the fish going forward. We won't survive otherwise."

EU fisheries ministers flew into Cork yesterday, before holding three hours of meetings at Cork City Hall today.

On their agenda, ministers were due to discuss how the EU can sustainably develop its fisheries and aquaculture, as well as generational renewal in both sectors.

Patrick Murphy and John Lynch both appealed for support from the Government and from the EU for the fishing sector.

"We had to give away €49 million worth of fish to England, to allow other countries to keep fishing in our waters after Brexit. This was a massive loss to us," Patrick Murphy said.

"We have seen other countries - coastal states - taking way more mackerel, depleting the stocks, bringing the stocks down from a high of nearly a million tonnes, down to a couple of hundred thousand tonnes now. We can't survive on those figures. So, what we need is our government to step in, help us, fight for us in Europe, fight for us with the coastal states and make sure that there is a viable future, which we believe there is."

Fisheries ministers are expected to address plans for the future of the sector at a news conference scheduled for later today, once their meeting in Cork has finished.