Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is pushing a door open with the conference his party is hosting on the economic potential of the marine sector in Galway today.

"We aren't landing cocaine, but the way the authorities treat us, we might as well be," says one of a number of disenchanted new fishing-vessel owners who say they are being forced to sell up over current Government policy.

Negotiations are still at a delicate stage in some instances, but up to five vessels built under the second phase of a €119 million development package have been sold or are on the market.

"Fleet renewal - where did it all go wrong?" asks the headline on this month's Irish Skipper magazine, which also carries an advertisement for one of the vessels - the 25m twin rig prawn/whitefish trawler Ellie Adhamh, built just two years ago in Spain.

Siblings Cliona (30) and John (28) Conneely of the Aran islands have also decided to put their 24m vessel Maggie C up for sale - again just two years old and built in France under the State's scheme. "It has become too regulated, with no appreciation of the environment in which we work and the responsibilities we have in terms of running the boat and making it pay," Cliona Conneely says. The pair, who both fished with their father Gregory, say they put "every last penny" into the €2.6 million investment, and worked right through last Christmas to make repayments, amounting to €20,000 a month.

"Then there's fuel, insurance, gear, maintenance, and harbour dues running to €12,000 last year. Fuel alone is costing us a third of our gross," John Conneely explains.

Over the past five months, the vessel has been arrested twice. It is among an increasing number of Irish vessels being detained by the Naval Service in the absence of any hard information on quotas for non-Irish vessels.

Shore inspections by more than 50 fishery officers employed by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources have also targeted the new whitefish boats. In the words of one official who spoke off the record, they are "easy prey".

What galls west Cork fleet-owner Ebbie Sheehan, who has put his 22m Boy Jason, built in Spain in 2003 for €2 million, up for sale is that he and others were actively encouraged by the Government to take enormous financial risks. Most of the €119 million involved in two schemes to build new vessels and modernise existing ones between 2000 and 2003 was put up by the industry.

The first €66 million scheme involved €9 million in EU funds, €8.4 million in State aid, and tax incentives, while the second €53 million scheme included €12 million in EU funds and just €2 million in State grants.

The two programmes were introduced for very good reasons, according to Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM). After the loss without trace of the Donegal fishing vessel, Carrickatine, with six crew on board in November 1995, a Government safety review found that more than 60 per cent of the whitefish fleet was old and unsafe. It said skippers were being forced to take greater risks to make ends meet.

The main banks were enthusiastic about the renewal programmes, as were several State reports.

The BIM input to the National Development Plan argued that a doubling of annual EU and State expenditure on the marine could increase employment in the most peripheral regions by up to 20 per cent over the next seven years. It said the marine sector received only 1 per cent of EU structural funds, yet yielded more pro rata in jobs and export terms than investment in agriculture.

Fast forward to 2006, and the industry has experienced a Taoiseach who forgot to include marine in his 2002 Cabinet portfolio, a department undergoing decentralisation, a revised Common Fisheries Policy, quota cuts and fuel price rises.

Marine scientists have been compromised by having to co-operate in a continuing Garda investigation into alleged illegal landings. The industry also recently lost its bid for a system of administrative penalties - advocated by the European Commission - in the bitter row over the new Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Bill.

The zeal with which the Bill was put through was in contrast to the far more dilatory approach to setting up a promised seafood strategy review, which hasn't yet finalised terms of reference.

Ebbie Sheehan says the new vessels are viable and could live with low quotas if there was a fair enforcement system and a real commitment by the Government to conservation.

"There isn't, because we are given monthly quotas, and must discard this fish, or land it illegally, if we go over that limit. Yet anyone with experience knows you have no control over what type of fish you take from the sea.

"We should be allowed to declare all we take, and face a tie-up the following month if we go over quota - rather than finding ourselves facing a €100,000 fine in court," he says. "France and Spain operate annual quotas, so why can't we?"

A recent study of the decline of the Kerry fishing fleet warned that the economic impact of the downturn was being masked by the fact that fishing crews were working on construction sites.

John Conneely wants to stay fishing, but believes his future now lies abroad. Cliona's hopes lie in Fine Gael, which has promised to repeal the contentious legislation and to restore marine to a full cabinet position.

BIM believes the whitefish renewal schemes have been a success, and says only two vessels - both inshore - have changed hands to its knowledge, with those owners wishing to buy larger vessels. "The industry is undergoing a difficult transition," a spokesman says. A €45 million decommissioning scheme introduced last year for older vessels has had "a low take-up", it confirmed, partly due to the fact that compensation is taxed.