A European fund established to compensate Irish fishermen adversely impacted by the permanent loss of quota due to Brexit has yet to be distributed to the pelagic sector some 17 months after it was first recommended, according to the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO).

Irish mackerel

Irish mackerel

Post-Brexit Ireland lost 26% of its mackerel quota

KFO Chief Executive Seán O’Donoghue said the organisation’s members are extremely frustrated at the “inordinate and punitive delay” in providing financial support to mackerel, horse mackerel, blue whiting, boarfish and herring fishermen – collectively the sector most impacted from the Brexit fallout.

“We have been repeatedly fed the line that our modest slice of the €1 billion Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) was subject to the department receiving national sanction and state aid approval at EU level. However, Denmark was formally given EU Commission approval under state aid rules only last week meaning the way is now effectively cleared for our monies to be dispersed here.

“In a nutshell, if Danish fishermen can draw down the funding for losses of quota due to Brexit, why can’t we get it? The most damning aspect of this protracted fiasco is that if we don’t distribute this funding by year end, it’ll be returned to Europe and permanently lost to our fishermen. This is potentially an appalling vista and we’re calling for the most urgent of political action by Minister McConalogue on this matter,” O’Donoghue said.

Following Brexit, Ireland lost 26% of its mackerel and 14% of its nephrops quotas.

KFO estimates that in the absence of financial support and other burden sharing measures, Ireland’s pelagic sector will shed more than 1,200 jobs by 2030 because of Brexit, and that from 2021 to the end of 2023, pelagic fishermen will have had more than 37,000 tonnes of their mackerel quota stripped away as a direct result of Brexit, resulting in loss of more than €52 million.

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