An island economy without buoyant fisheries will sink
Igot a stark reminder this week that we are an ‘island nation’ – the only one in post-Brexit EU. I was in the busy fishing port of Rossaveal in Galway this week where locals were quick to remind me that the west Connemara harbour is also the busiest passenger ferry port in the country. Hard to believe, but daily passenger numbers on the ferries to the Aran Islands outstrip the numbers travelling from Dublin Port and Rosslare every day. With more than 2,000 travelling daily to the Aran Islands, it is another signal that tourism trumps trawlers when it comes to priorities in Ireland.
But one seasoned seafarer told me, when I spoke of the number of cruise liners now docking in Dublin Port each week, that a single trawler landing a load of mackerel in Rossaveal brings more to the Irish economy than 2,000 tourists getting off a liner on pre-paid trips for a couple of hours.
Fishermen I spoke to are still in shock from the announcement this week that the UK are withdrawing unilaterally from the London Fisheries Convention, a move that will ban Irish trawlers from UK waters. They reminded me that 50% of our most valuable catch – mackerel – comes from the waters around Northern Ireland. Currently, 40% of Ireland’s fishing quota is caught in UK waters.
It has long been the contention of Irish fishery organisations that Ireland, the ‘fish basket of Europe’, sacrificed our valuable seas to France, Italy and Spain in return for a good deal for our farmers when we joined the EU.
They have argued trenchantly over the years that fisheries are the Cinderella of Irish negotiations in Brussels.
One fishmonger in Dunmore East told me recently of the bizarre situation he is in where he is selling ‘Spanish fish’ in his shop that he knows has been caught a few miles from the Waterford fishing village. Trawlers from mainland Europe are legally ‘plundering’ our rich seas courtesy of the EU.
Ironically, the Tories’ sudden move to withdraw from the London convention has rendered the controversial Sea Fisheries Bill going through the Oireachtas redundant.
It is a reminder that we do not have first entitlement to our own waters – that provenance would be with the European Union – an unsustainable situation in a postBrexit world.
The London decision received wholehearted support from the leading party in Northern Ireland, the DUP, with one of its MEPs, Diane Dodds trumpeting that it will restore the UK as an ‘independent coastal nation’.
‘With friends like that who needs enemies? The 11,000 people employed in the Republic’s fishing industry will not be looking to Arlene Foster’s party for support .
Another problem facing the industry is that it does not have a single representative body – if ever there was need for unity among the disparate groups it is now.
The decision this week by London is a wake-up call for the Government and the fishing industry and a reminder to the rest of us of how important the fishing industry is to the economy.