Fishermen welcome Coveney’s retention of marine brief

The Federation of Irish Fishermen (FIF) has welcomed the announcement that Minister Coveney is to keep his existing responsibilities including marine in the Cabinet reshuffle.

 Simon Coveney, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine speaking at Our Ocean Wealth Conference, Dublin Castle, June 2014. Photo Gillian Mills

“We are pleased that Minister Coveney has retained responsibility for marine and we are confident given his keen interest in the area that he will deal with it personally himself rather than delegating it to a junior minister,”  remarked Sean O’Donoghue FIF chairman.

 He added it was “vitally important” for continued growth and sustainable development of seafood sector that the industry has a senior minister at the Cabinet table.

 “Minister Coveney has been proactive since he was appointed minister in dealing with a myriad of difficult issues relating to the seafood sector. His recent achievement in a doubling of the EU funding to €148m under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund is an example of this.

“We look forward to working closely with Minister Coveney over the coming months in addressing the many pressing issues in the seafood sector such the implementation of the discards ban, the national allocation of EMFF funds and proposed reductions in fishing opportunities for 2015.”