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Greencastle Harbour comes to
standstill
17.06.08
GREENCASTLE Harbour
came to a standstill at the weekend as every skipper
tied up his boat and joined fishermen around the
country at crisis talks in Athlone.
A local delegation of around 20 trawlermen and their
supporters travelled from Inishowen to the Midlands
on Friday for the marathon talks. The exodus
resulted in the biggest tie-up seen at the harbour
for many years. The crunch meeting resulted in
fishermen agreeing, for now at least, to call off
their blockades. |
Foyle Fishermen's Co-Op
manager John O'Kane said the local skippers, like
their national counterparts, would now give the
Government a chance to deliver on its undertaking to
get aid for them from the EU.
"Morale is at an all-time low in the fishing
industry and if things continue as they are, the
future looks bleak," said Mr. O'Kane. |
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He said the soaring
cost of fuel was only part of the problem and that
the Sea Fisheries Bill, which would criminalise
fishermen for relatively minor offences and errors,
was one of the biggest issues on the table.
"This bill hassles and harasses fishermen. If a
fisherman was over quota by say just €500 they could
be fined around €100,000 and get a criminal record.
It's just crazy."
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,
Brendan Smith will this week ask the Commissioner Jo
Borg to bring forward a new EU-funded package of
measures to alleviate the hardship in the Irish
fishing sector.
John O'Kane said that the hardship fund would mean
that fishermen would have to tie-up for around two
months in the near future. But he stressed that the
tie-up would be alternated among skippers so that
there would still be a supply of fish coming into
Greencastle as the hardship fund was rolled out. In
the meantime, the Greencastle fleet, like their
national colleagues, will continue to press the
Government to revoke the Sea Fisheries Bill. |
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