No-deal Brexit puts fisheries jobs at risk
Thousands of fishing industry workers could lose their jobs in a no-deal doomsday Brexit due to immediate restrictions in coveted British waters.
Agriculture and Marine Minister Michael Creed also warned that isolated coastal communities, already plagued by decades of recession, will be among the worst affected and must be protected by the EU.
Noting “a third” of the multi-million euro industry is based on stocks taken from UK waters, Mr Creed said the sector’s 10,000-strong workforce is facing a “really serious challenge” — and that thousands of jobs could be at risk.
“This is a really serious challenge,” he said. “About a third of the value of our fishing industry is caught in UK waters, so there’s no way of dressing up a hard Brexit for the fishing industry that makes it more palatable than the obvious impact.
“We’ve been very involved in building a coalition with other member states — the Dutch, the Danes, the Belgians, the French, the Swedes, the Germans — who all have exposure from UK waters.
“And we’ve been putting our analysis into the [EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel] Barnier taskforce.
“But if Britain crashes out... you’re talking about an industry, you can do the maths yourself, but you’re talking about an industry where about a third of our industry is in UK waters.
Now, not all of that would necessarily be a casualty because you can catch some of the stock where it migrates, but a third of our industry is in UK waters in value terms, it’s an industry that employs in excess of 10,000 people between onshore and processing side on the fishing boats, so you can do the maths.
The Agriculture and Marine Minister said that while the national economy will be badly hit by any cut to fishing income, isolated coastal towns and villages will be among the worst damaged economically by the pending political storm.
He insisted that the EU needs to ensure the damage for these vulnerable areas is limited and said officials in Brussels must “support our industry” during this precarious time.
“What has to be borne in mind is this is going to hit in regional communities and peripheral communities where there aren’t a lot of other readily available alternatives [to fishing industry jobs],” he said.
“If it happens, then this is an issue we will be going hot-to-trot to the EU commissioner on, looking for support for our industry.”
Mr Creed was speaking after the Government last week published detailed plans on how Ireland is preparing for a no-deal Brexit crisis.
The plans include:
Asked about the increasing probability of a no-deal cliff edge on March 29 — a situation that is now just 14 weeks away, should it happen — Mr Creed said he still believes that officials and politicians in Britain can step back from the brink and agree a deal before the March 29 deadline.
However, he added: “The odds [on a no-deal Brexit] are certainly shorter. My money would still be on a deal, but I wouldn’t be putting a lot of money on it.”
