www.inshore-ireland.com The Marine & Freshwater Environment Publication
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NATIONAL MARINE PLAN FOR IRELAND
PAGES 6-7
MARINE INNOVATION PARK FOR WEST COAST
PAGES 31-31
Winter 2018/19 Vol 14 Issue 4
ONLINE EDITION
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Guarded optimism from Irish fisheries to Brexit declaration Gillian Mills
C
hief Executive of the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) has welcomed the Brexit declaration which includes specific acknowledgment and reference to linking access and quotas to the wider
trade issue. Responding to the 36page draft text, which is part of a package alongside the legal treaty on Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, Seán O’Donoghue said the key to a successful fisheries outcome would be this link: Paragraph 75 of the text states: ‘Within the context of the overall economic partnership the Parties
should establish a new fisheries agreement on, inter alia, access to waters and quota shares.’ A new EU-UK agreement on fisheries would form part of the overall new relationship between the two; the sides aim to ‘conclude and ratify their new fisheries agreement by 1 July 2020’. Building on the momentum of the draft publication
and political declaration, “the Irish fishing industry is currently relatively wellplaced to avoid a disastrous hard Brexit,” he noted.
VIGILANCE REQUIRED
While encouraged by the documents seen to date which set down “strong foundations, we cannot afford to take our eye off the ball. We’ve begun well but we’re
Local and environmental criticism over mussel seed dredging in Dalkey Sound, Co Dublin. Full story pg 16.
not even at half-time yet. We know only too-well from experience that fisheries negotiations are multi-faceted and highly complex, and much remains to be agreed.” Ireland’s fishing industry contends that a future framework for fisheries after the transition period needs to maintain the current »» page 12
(photo Des Burke-Kennedy)