Business Opinion/John McManus:Fisheries has always been something of unloved orphan in the State's overall scheme of things. Following the reorganisation of Government departments after the election, responsibility for fisheries moved from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to the expanded Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Its current home, however, appears to be a pavement halfway between its former offices off Leeson Street and its new home on Kildare Street in the Department of Agriculture. Some bits have moved, some haven't and a certain amount of confusion reigns as to who does what and where.

It is tempting to think that all this upheaval has played a part in what appears to have been yet another sidestepping of stated Government policy to the advantage of the late Kevin McHugh's Atlantic Dawn Ltd, former owners of the eponymous and not uncontroversial super-trawler.

In March of this year, the then and current junior minister with responsibility for fisheries, John Browne was asked in the Dáil by Deputy Martin Ferris, the Sinn Féin marine spokesman, what would happen to the Atlantic Dawn's valuable Irish fishing quotas following the sale of the trawler by Atlantic Dawn Ltd to a Dutch company,

The Minister replied, "It is important to emphasise that quotas are a national asset and are not owned by individuals. The normal arrangements for allocation of pelagic quotas for vessels in the RSW pelagic segment will be applied. These arrangements vary from stock to stock. I intend to ensure that the quotas available to Ireland are fully utilised."

Just to be sure, he added at the end of his answer, "The vessel owners do not own the quota: it is a national asset."

Fast forward then to last week when it emerged that Atlantic Dawn Ltd has bought a second hand trawler and plans to fish for mackerel, herring and other oily fish in Irish waters.

It had overcome the obstacle that stands in the way of anyone with the price of a fishing boat to risk in this potential very lucrative business - the lack of a fishing quota - by utilising the aforementioned Atlantic Dawn quota which was supposed to have reverted to the "national pool" according to Minister Browne.

The vessel in question has already gone to sea availing of the quota and Atlantic Dawn Ltd is in the process of buying another vessel, presumably to avail of another chunk of quota which, according to Minister Browne, is a national asset.

And one, at that, to which all presumably are entitled to lay claim.

The good news - unless you happen to be someone else who would like a bit of the national quota pool so that you to can go fishing - is that, according to the department, the arrangements put in place for Atlantic Dawn Ltd do "not represent a change in established policy and practice".

And furthermore, according to the department, the arrangement does not set a precedent for individual transferable quotas, which would amount to the privatisation of the annual fish allocations agreed every year in Brussels.

It would also amount to privatisation without the receipt by the exchequer of any money in return for the State asset in question.

Unfortunately, however, this is exactly what it looks like has happened, and the Department of Agriculture has yet to explain with anything approaching clarity how it does not amount to the same thing.

But the department's apparent equivocation is perfectly in keeping with the precedents set in the Government's other dealings on behalf of Atlantic Dawn Ltd, which generally involved high-ranking politicians and civil servants - including the Taoiseach - bending over backwards to get rules changed or ignored to further the commercial endeavours of Atlantic Dawn Ltd.

The Government, led by the Taoiseach, went to extreme lengths to get the Atlantic Dawn admitted to the Irish fleet. The compromise that was eventually reached in 2002 involved the McHugh's selling one of their other boats and once again transferring its quota - again a national asset that, according to the Minister, reverts to the national pool when a vessel changes hands - to the Atlantic Dawn.

This same quota is now being used by Atlantic Dawn Ltd on a third and potentially a fourth boat. If that does not amount to making it their private property, it is hard to see what does.

It is also very hard to see how - notwithstanding the department's statements - they can prevent other owners of vessels with fishing quotas treating them as their own personal assets.

These quotas for oily fish, which appear to have been all but given away were worth €73 million last year, in terms of the value of the fish landed.