Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Deputy Pearse Doherty has expressed his deep concern at the British Government’s announcement this week that it intends to pull out of the London Fisheries Convention.
The London Fisheries Convention allows vessels registered in the State to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of Britain’s coastline.
Deputy Doherty said the announcement is “extremely concerning, particularly for the Irish fishing fleet, and further brings home to us all the reality of Brexit.”
“The London Convention gives rights to neighbouring countries to fish in each other’s fishing zones based on historic fishing activity and pre-dates our EU membership but was subsequently incorporated into the Common Fisheries Policy.
“In 2015 Ireland caught 100,000 tons of fish in those waters amounting to half the Irish catch. Under present arrangements we can only catch five percent of the catch in EU waters. It would be a disaster for the Irish fleet if this prevailed.
“Despite Brexit, hopes were previously expressed that the Irish fleet would have a reciprocal arrangement with Britain regarding Irish waters in order to protect the mutual interest of fishing vessels registered here and those in Britain however, Irish waters are EU waters, so our government has to make that case in Brussels for the Irish fleet.
“Unfortunately, in this State we have a history of government negotiators not standing up for Irish rights in EU negotiations. This time, it is vital that Minister Creed makes sure that the voice of the Irish fishing fleet is heard and in the wake of this announcement must demand that non-Irish vessels displaced from British waters are not automatically redirected into increasingly crowded Irish waters.
“And despite the recent comments and concerns expressed by certain political representatives here in our own county who spoke of their unhappiness this week following this announcement, it’s ironic that they were the very same voices who were keen advocates of Brexit and actually supported Britain’s withdrawal from the EU during the referendum campaign. I think those individuals now need to come clean and admit that Brexit is a disaster, and will have major implications for the island of Ireland.”