THE Minister for the Marine has been advised to "bite the bullet", on sea safety and institute a new boat building programme for the fishing fleet. Failure to do so could result in further sea tragedies, the Foyle Fishermen's Cooperative has said.
The Irish Fishermen's Federation (IFF) has supported the plea by the Donegal co op, which was, issued to coincide with the private funeral service at sea for the members of the co op who were lost on the Carrickatine almost three months ago. The Minister, Mr Barrett, is attending the funeral service on the LE Eithne off Donegal this morning weather permitting at his own request.
The Minister's immediate response to the loss of the Carrickatine an extensive search for the six missing fishermen and the establishment of a review group on safety has been welcomed by the industry.
In the long term, the review group will only be effective if it proposes an immediate new building programme, Dr Peter Tyndall, manager of the Foyle Co op in Greencastle, has said.
The Government argues that under the current EU regime on fleet size it cannot support new building, and a £6 million decommissioning scheme has been set up to reduce fleet size by the "scrapping" of boats. However, Spain and France have continued with fleet renewal.
"Old wooden vessels, originally built for the herring fishery, are now making long trips well off the Irish coast and are competing with larger, all weather Spanish vessels, which are positively encouraged by their own government. Without a well financed new building programme, there is every likelihood that we are going to experience more tragedies," Dr Tyndall said. The short deadline for the safety review group's report by the end of May was certainly an advantage, he said.
The Iff held what it described as a "very useful" meeting with European Commission representatives in Cork at the weekend, when one fisherman asked why Ireland was being asked to reduce its fleet by 4,000 tonnes while vessels equivalent to 5,000 tonnes from the Spanish register now had access to Irish waters.
