Failure to compensate fishermen criticised

GOVERNMENT MARINE advisor Joey Murrin has said he is "seriously concerned" at the failure of the Government to provide some compensation for crew in the new €42 million scrapping scheme for whitefish vessels.

Mr Murrin, who was joint author of the State's €600 million seafood strategy published last year, said he has raised the issue with Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Mary Coughlan but has received no response.

Applications are currently being sought for the decommissioning scheme, which aims to take up to a third of the whitefish fleet out of the sector at an initial cost of €21 million. Some €58 million had originally been promised, and Ms Coughlan hopes to secure another €21 million next year.

However, as crew in the whitefish fleet are deemed to be self-employed, they are not automatically entitled to any aid. Ms Coughlan has made it clear that this is a matter for vessel owners.

Mr Murrin said he was aware that the Minister was "sympathetic" to the plight of crew who may have given their lives to the industry. He noted that part of the decommissioning fund was being allocated to retraining, but this would only suit crew of a particular age.

"To propose retraining to a man who has given nearly 20 years of his life to a skipper/owner is an insult to his dignity at this stage of his career," Mr Murrin said.

The original court ruling which deemed deck hands to be self employed was "a serious miscarriage of justice", Mr Murrin said.

He believed some enabling legislation should be found to allow crew with a long and dedicated track record to walk away with some recompense.

Mr Murrin was one of the so-called "three wise men" hired by former marine minister Noel Dempsey to draw up a seafood strategy, including decommissioning. The group, chaired by former Bord Bia chief executive Dr Noel Cawley, published its report just over a year ago and it was endorsed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

One of its recommendations was that crew should be assisted under "area-based initiatives", given that one of the remits of the European Fisheries Fund was to "maintain and develop jobs in fisheries areas through support for diversification" .

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times