Ports of Donegal like Greencastle and Killybegs would be further decimated if proposals put at this week’s Council of EU Fisheries Ministers were approved. The proposal to prohibit fishing for cod, whiting and haddock off the North West coast simply cannot be accepted.

This was the view expressed by Marian Harkin MEP in a letter she has written to EU Fisheries Commissioner Borg in which she called for proposed quota cuts to be rejected.

She said that Donegal’s fishing ports could not sustain any further and unnecessary quota cuts and emphasised that proposals to change  the Hague Preferences was unacceptable and a direct threat to jobs in the fishing industry in Ireland’s North West.

“There is no adequate scientific evidence to decrease herring, prawn or monk quotas in the North West." she said. She called on the Commissioner to take careful account of the arguments being made by representatives of Irish fishermen and their public representatives. "I believe that the Commission proposals, if accepted, will add hundreds of fishermen to the increasing numbers losing their jobs throughout the EU" Marian Harkin concluded.