The Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) has said that repeated guarantees given to Irish fishermen have effectively been shredded under the Brexit deal reached between the EU and the UK.
According to KFO chief executive Seán O’Donoghue, a host of written commitments in official documents pertaining to the fisheries sector post-Brexit had been secured – but he said that these have to all intents and purposes been dishonoured by the negotiators.
‘We cannot stand idly by and allow decades of investment in developing a successful enterprise to be sacrificed by the shape of this very poor deal,’ he said.
‘In spite of a seismic effort to redress the imbalance of the proposed deal in recent days, not enough has changed and our highly-developed mackerel fishery stands to lose out dramatically. While the full detail of the text is not yet available, it will require very close examination and analysis.’
He stated that it is a certainty that they will be seeking compensation.
‘We won’t accept this. Moreover, we fully expect the Irish Government to deliver the requisite compensation in the form of transfer of mackerel quota from the other EU coastal states which pro rata, have seen a much less severe impact on their respective mackerel fisheries,’ Seán O’Donoghue said.
