October 2003.

“Irish South & West Fishermens Organisation welcome New Irish Box”

The Irish South & West Fishermens Organisation have welcomed Mondays decision by EU fisheries ministers to create a new Irish Box. The deal that was struck, while reducing the overall size of the box, has maintained protection for the most critical areas off the South and West coasts.

According to Jason Whooley, manager of the Irish South & West Fishermens Organisation, “We have been pushing hard for 12 months, through many meetings and demonstrations, to secure a satisfactory resolution to this issue. Todays decision is a welcome endorsement of our arguments that this sensitive area forms a vital nursery ground for our fish stocks. We had 2 main issues with a new Irish Box and these appear to have been satisfied. The first was that Spanish fishing effort would not be allowed to increase within the box and Minister Ahern has categorically stated, in a meeting with us after the negotiations, that this will not occur”.

“The second issue was that the requirement to report entry, exit and catches within the box would be retained. Without these controls any new Box would have been useless and we are pleased that they have been retained”.

The fine detail will be worked out early next year while Ireland is in the EU presidency. Mr Whooley added “The proof of the pudding is in the eating and we expect that the final arrangements will copperfasten these controls”

Another crucial outcome of these negotiations is that the existing “Irish Box” will remain in place until the middle of 2004 and this is a further boost to the Irish fishing industry. The new box will be reviewed on December 31st 2008.

Mr. Whooley concluded “Given that we had a shopping list going to this Council of Ministers and we got what we looked for we must commend Minister Ahern and his officials on a successful outcome”.