On 30 September Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries, Timmy Dooley, TD, signed Policy Drective 1 of 2025, effectively giving legal standing to the measures announced by himself and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Haydon, on 22 July to restrict trawling by vessels larger than 18m inside six nautical miles and the baselines.
You can read full details about the measures signed into law by Minister Dooley here.
Save Our Sprat West Cork welcomes this as another step forward in the effective implementation of the measures. While we agree with other groups advocating for Sprat that these measures on their own do not go far enough, we also acknowledge that they are a significant first step that we can build on to provide additional protection for Sprat, and by extension the entire inshore marine ecosystem, moving forward.
You can read our original response to the Government’s announcement on the measures to restrict large trawlers inshore here.
Read Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity’s response to the questions we raised here.