Sinn Féin’s Foreign Affairs, Trade and Diaspora spokesperson, Seán Crowe TD, has welcomed the news that the European Union has agreed to end the practice of dumping millions of tonnes of fish every year, supposedly within six years.

Deputy Crowe said that the dumping of millions of tonnes of perfectly healthy fish into the sea was an immoral practice, particularly when people were starving and going hungry around the world, and that the practice should have been abolished years ago.

Deputy Séan Crowe said:

“As a consumer I could never get my head around the warped immoral thinking behind the practice of dumping millions of tonnes of perfectly good and edible fish back into the sea, especially at a time when people are going hungry in Europe or literally starving in other parts of the world.

“This bizarre practice was introduced supposedly as part of a plan to save fish stocks and reach some notional quota established in Brusssels.

“Discarded fish is dead before being thrown back into the sea and is of no benefit to anyone except seagulls or other birds.

“We also know that while this was being monitored and regulated some countries trawlers are stripping and decimating the seas around our coastlines of fish.

“My party Sinn Féin has consistently been calling for this practice to come to an end and it should have happened a long time ago.

“However, this development is to be welcomed. It was absolutely ludicrous to allow a situation continue where millions of tonnes of perfectly healthy fish were being dumped back into the sea because of EU bureaucracy. At the same time Irish fishermen were coming under more and more pressure from the EU because of low fish stocks.

“It is imperative that the stated six year target for this plan is now met, although it would have been preferable if it could even be phased out before then.

“The end of this immoral practice is crucial for the survival of European fish stocks and the Irish fishing fleet, and it is the right thing to do

“Steps must now be taken here to ensure that there is effective policing of this issue, and the illegal practices of non-Irish fleets in Irish waters like the stripping the seas of fish, comes to an end.

“Minister Simon Coveney’s agreement while not perfect is clearly a step in the right direction and should be welcomed by consumers, the fishing industry and environmentalists around Ireland and Europe.”

ENDS