Fears over fishermen’s income if UK waters are closed

Twitter Loss of access to UK waters because of Brexit would wipe out a third of Irish fishermen’s incomes, totalling some €500m a year, minister Michael Creed has warned. The Agriculture Minister, also responsible for marine policy, added that such a calamity would deliver an extra blow to Ireland by attracting other EU vessels to Irish waters chasing ever scarcer stocks.

He said Ireland must link the fishery issue to the EU-UK trade negotiations, and swap things such as UK financial services concessions for continued fishing access to UK waters after Brexit takes effect.

Seven states, including Ireland, are concerned by the continued access issue. The others are Spain, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

Log In

New to Independent.ie? Create an account

In Ireland’s case, 60pc of its most lucrative catch of mackerel is in UK waters while 40pc of prawns are sourced there.

But, despite the relatively small size of the UK industry, full and exclusive control of its fishing waters is often cited in anti-EU arguments. Mr Creed has said Ireland is lucky to have this issue being dealt with by chief negotiator Michel Barnier. He is a former French fisheries minister and also understands Ireland’s concerns.

But the minister has also warned it will not be enough, as suggested by some commentators, to link fishery access with UK fish produce access to EU markets.

He said that, in many cases, World Trade Organisation tariffs on fish products are low and this may not help leverage continued fishing waters access.

«The only way we can be sure of getting a good deal out of this is, rather than dealing with fisheries in isolation, we tie it into the broader trade negotiations, where they have asks on things like financial services access to the EU and so on,» Mr Creed told the Irish Independent.

Mr Creed said the real Brexit talks were only now beginning with an EU mandate to be worked out in February after Brexit formally happens on January 31. EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan will lead talks on trade.