Fisheries

The history of Irish fisheries is not a story of success. It is rather a story of a struggle for survival against political ineptness and indifference and international exploitation of Irish coastal communities and the resources they depend upon. Ireland possesses 16% of EU fishing waters yet has just .3% of the EU tonnage and 2.5% of the EU fleet

Sinn Fein proposes:

• an end to overfishing or illegal fishing by other EU countries
• the effective policing of flagships ie non nationals posing as Irish and fishing our quota
• rejection of attempts to create a non commercial three mile fishing zone
• increased funding for the modernisation of the Irish fishing fleet
• a coherent policy to protect the ``Continental Shelf'', Ireland's main fish spawning ground
• an early and fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy ahead of the planned review in 2002