Uncertainty and some internal Government disagreement over Cabinet responsibility for key marine functions has been resolved with the formal delegation of responsibilities to the Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan.
The order to establish the new Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was approved yesterday and has been welcomed by Ms Coughlan.
She said that a "strong team" comprising herself and Minister of State John Browne are "committed to giving the industry a new impetus for sustainable development".
A Government plan to set up a "special investigative unit" and a "telephone hotline" to monitor offshore fishing activity were reported to have been key elements in a post-election row over ministerial responsibility for fisheries within Cabinet.
The recommendations were made in an unpublished consultancy study by British company Poseidon and commissioned by former minister for the marine Noel Dempsey.
Ms Coughlan is understood to have learned of the study after meeting fishing industry representatives. She subsequently refused to take any responsibility for the fisheries portfolio until a relevant Government order had been signed.
Shortly after her appointment, Ms Coughlan had said in an interview that she intended to take a different approach to the fishing industry, based on working with the sector.
Surveillance of sea fisheries is already far more extensive than that for illegal drugs imports, with 440 Naval Service staff, 10 Air Corps staff and a new Sea Fisheries Protection Authority in Clonakilty, Co Cork, recruiting up to 80 sea fishery officers.
Ms Coughlan's new department retains all of the former functions of the Department of Agriculture and Food, but assumes responsibility for sea fisheries, aquaculture, marine research and engineering, pier and harbour development (apart from commercial and island harbours), aquaculture licensing, and foreshore licensing for fish farmers.
However, effective coastal-zone management has been further fragmented. Foreshore licences for commercial harbours will be handled by the Department of Transport, and licensing for all energy and aggregate and mineral extraction projects will transfer to the Department of the Environment.
In a related development, the Department of Transport says it is finalising the final salvage contract for the two fishing vessels which sank off the southeast coast with the loss of seven lives in total.
Five crew lost their lives on the Pere Charles south of Hook Head last January, while two crew are still missing from the Maggie B, which sank with the loss of two lives off the southeast in late March 2006.
