Looking back at the past month, the failure of Ireland’s 14 MEPs to get a seat on the crucial Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament stands out as a serious setback when there is a review of the Common Fisheries Policy – the cause of Irish fishing problems -and also the re-negotiation of the Brexit fisheries deal with the UK, another ‘disaster’ for the fishing industry…coming up …. Two major issues and no representation of Ireland’s situation on a crucial Committee which will be dealing with them … Land-locked Hungary has a seat on it … Ireland with the best fishing waters in Europe hasn’t … Not great for the country, for the fishing industry, nor the achievements of Irish MEPs …..
I’ll be writing in detail about that Committee and the MEPs in the August edition of the MARINE TIMES and also about an armed raid by Gardai and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority on the biggest fish processing plant in the South-East, at Kilmore Quay, which was brought to my attention when I was in the Wexford fishing village for the commemoration of the sinking of a Cork-owned cargo ship a hundred years ago.
It does seem astonishing and hard to believe that Ireland has not got a single full member amongst the 27 MEPs appointed to the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries. This at a time when the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) will be amongst the main tasks for the new Parliamentary Committee.
How did this happen? I asked all 14 MEPs, just six of them replied. Is that an indication of interest in coastal and fishing communities and the fishing industry itself?
The MEPs explanations, in general, are not particularly satisfactory and the lack of answers for the failure to get representation from nine of them, does not appear to indicate particular concern for the problems faced by the industry. Nor do they explain why Ireland was effectively eviscerated from a Committee on which it should have equal representation with other major fishing States, particularly when those hold and operate under much larger EU-allocated quotas in Irish waters, than Irish boats hold.
Imagine – Hungary, a landlocked country, has a representative on the EU Fisheries Committee, while Ireland with the best fishing waters in Europe does not and, because of unfair quotas, the Irish fishing fleet is locked out of the best opportunities.
I was in Kilmore Quay for the commemoration of the sinking of the Cork City Steam Packet Company’s cargo vessel, the SS Lismore, a hundred years after the tragedy, when she sank off Hook Head, not far out to sea from Kilmore, in the early morning hours of July 11, 1924…. Eighteen of the nineteen crew died. They were from Wexford, Cork, Derry, Liverpool, the Isle of Man and Spain.
Being lost at sea is a terrible tragedy when no bodies are found. That haunts families for generations. There is no funeral, no grave and no closure. There are so many unanswered questions. The ceremony, in the Memorial Garden at Kilmore Quay, was evocative and emotional. Listen to the Podcast on this website.
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