AS EU agriculture and fisheries ministers burned midnight oil in Brussels over next year's fish quotas, Minister of State for Fisheries Tony Killeen last night warned that the steep cuts proposed would threaten the viability of the Irish industry.
Mr Killeen said he had real concerns about a proposed ban on fishing for whitefish off the coast of Scotland and northwest Ireland.
He said quota cuts in 2009 for cod, prawn, skate and ray and a proposal backed by the French EU presidency to abolish a long-standing policy known as the Hague Preferences were also a problem.
The Hague Preferences was offered to Ireland after EU accession in 1976 in return for access to Ireland's rich fishery within the 200-mile limit. It gives Ireland additional fishing quota in certain species, particularly in valuable whitefish species such as cod.
For example, in 2009 applying the Hague Preferences would boost Irish fishermen's total allowable catch for cod in the Irish Sea up from 420 tonnes to 600 tonnes. The formula is even more valuable when applied in the Celtic Sea where it boosts the Irish allowable catch from 410 tonnes to 740 tonnes.
Mr Killeen said the Irish negotiating team was in a difficult position, because no other EU state was strongly supporting the retention of the Hague Preferences.
The Government is also disputing scientific evidence provided by the European Commission to justify the steep cuts in quotas for certain species and a complete ban on fishing for whitefish off the coast of Scotland and northwest Ireland.
Mr Killeen said he would not attempt to use the issue of a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty as a bargaining chip in the negotiations because it was not the way to do business at the council. However, some fishermen's organisations may raise the issue.
The Federation of Fishermen says the proposed ban on catching cod, whiting and haddock off the northwest coast and Scotland would have "devastating effects on coastal communities, especially in ports such as Greencastle, Co Donegal".
"This proposal has been placed on the agenda without going through the normal consultation process, and without any evidence of a socio-economic impact study being conducted."
The federation is also "strongly opposed" to proposed cuts of up to 15 per cent in the prawn quota. It says the cut has "no scientific basis", and is based on the "use of a bizarre rule relating to averaging of annual catch levels". It is also unhappy with proposals to cut quotas in the key monkfish and northwest herring fisheries.
It says a late proposal by France for a reduction in gill net-mesh sizes has "particularly angered Irish fishermen".
"The package of EU proposals, if implemented, would completely undermine a restructuring programme that promised increased fishing opportunities to a smaller Irish fleet," the federation's chairman Gerard O'Flynn has warned. " At a time of economic downturn the Irish fishing industry can ill afford further unnecessary and unjustified cuts in fish quotas, especially cuts that are not scientifically justified."
The Friends of the Irish Environment has claimed that the industry is "not properly informed" in challenging the ban on whitefish off the northwest. "The Marine Institute has been seeking closure of fisheries for cod since 2005."