Fish-processing factories are refusing to allow staff hired by the Department of the Marine to enter their premises to inspect the weighing of catches in a new standoff between the industry and the State.
Up to 12 plants last week barred from their properties in and near Killybegs officials who were hired late last year on temporary contracts by the Department of the Marine.
The latest confrontation follows charges by the Department of the Marine that current landing statistics are meaningless because many catch sizes are recorded fraudulently.
Until last year mackerel and herring catches were weighed at quaysides, although the European Commission insisted that automatic weighing machines would have to be in place.
The State and the European Commission wanted changes because they suspected the accuracy of the weighings, while the industry argued that they were inaccurate because they included too much sea water.
The transfer to the new system began last November, and the Department of the Marine agreed with the industry that it would recruit temporary staff to monitor the arrival, weighing and departure of fish from the plants.
Last night the Irish Fish Processors' and Exporters' Association said that the agreement with the Department of the Marine had made it clear that the staff were to be in place temporarily and would not become a permanent feature.
Former minister of state for the marine Pat "The Cope" Gallagher secured extra time from Brussels to fit the weighing machines by January 1st once it was accepted that not all of them could be supplied in time.
Under the law, sea fishery protection officers have full powers to inspect trawlers and fish-processing plants, although the temporary staff do not have similar powers. Now the Department of the Marine is considering other measures to ensure that they stay in place to monitor landings, Government sources have told The Irish Times.
Tom Geoghegan, of the Fish Processors' Association, said last night that enough fisheries officers were in place to monitor the catches.
Two European Commission officials are to begin another review of the State's regulations to protect fish stocks next week.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday during the report stage of the Sea Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Bill, Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey said the State was currently hiring 40 additional fisheries inspectors because the existing staff were under too much pressure.
Mr Dempsey criticised the factories for barring the temporary staff.
"Despite all the publicity about the small number of fishermen who continue to flout fisheries laws and the Common Fisheries Policy, there are still people who have not got the message that things must change," he said.
"I cannot accept a situation where large fish factories, which the State is required to monitor, refuse to grant access to control personnel which the State wishes to assign to meet national and EU obligations. I ask those fish processors to change their position rapidly if they want to convince people that nothing untoward is going on."
