Whatever happens in the fishing port of Killybegs, Co Donegal, openness and transparency are not part of the playbook.

illybegs may be far from Dublin – or Brussels for that matter – and fishing may be Ireland’s forgotten industry, but the rules of fairness and fairness must still apply.

A huge dispute over weighing fish threatens to render an industry that already faces enormous challenges unsustainable.

On the one hand, the EU. In 2018 he identified what he claims to be serious loopholes in Ireland’s fisheries control system. An audit of weighing practices at fish production plants supplied by the Killybegs fishing fleet identified system manipulation and other practices that may have led to violations of fishing quotas.

A three-year investigation was launched and the state’s Marine Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) insisted that the weighing of fish takes place in the port rather than in the factories.

Irish weather reported earlier this year that Ireland could see tens of thousands of tonnes of fish deducted from its quotas in the coming years by the EU, which would represent a likely unsustainable loss for fishermen.

Weighing fish incorrectly in order to claim additional quota would, of course, be wrong and unjustifiable. But the Killybegs fishermen have been denied access to 21 documents related to the initial audit which they say show the allegations and threats of sanctions are unfair.

“Our inability to defend ourselves is already having a huge effect,” said Sean O’Donoghue, CEO of the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organization (KFO).

“The fish are now unpacked from ice containers to be individually handled and weighed on the dock before being repackaged and shipped. Besides the logistical and financial ramifications, there is a very real problem surrounding the deterioration of the quality of the fish as a result of this obsolete and dysfunctional practice imposed on us. “

A court case related to this issue earlier this year ruled in favor of the fishermen and concluded that “the SFPA’s approach is illegal.”

Indeed, the SFPA itself faces its own serious questions, arising from a PWC report it commissioned in its own capacity.

“The overall conclusion of this review is that the SFPA is not functioning effectively and requires urgent attention. Relationships and trust have been affected by a range of issues, including some long-standing industrial relations issues that have not been resolved… Relationships with various stakeholders, to varying degrees, are difficult. These issues impact performance and the organization does not function as a cohesive unit. “

And yet it is the SFPA that deals with the serious allegations arising from the EU audit, of which neither it nor the EU will disclose the details. O’Donoghue told the Independent Sunday this week that her organization will now pursue all legal avenues open to it and insisted that releasing the details of the audit would justify its members. The simple proof of this anyway would be the publication of the data.

“The fundamental thing here is that if you are accused of something, you have the right, under the Charter of Human Rights and the EU treaties, to receive the information on which these allegations are based” , did he declare.

Fishing is highly political and tied to notions of sovereignty, as Donegal-based Minister Charlie McConalogue is well aware in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Navy where the SFPA sits. Just look at his role in the UK Brexit debate.

Much of the rest of the fishing industry operates in smaller boats closer to shore and on a scale that doesn’t tend to catch the eye of Brussels to the same extent. They are unlikely to share the same passions on this particular issue as the owners of the expensive Killybegs fleet.

Nonetheless, with Ireland now distant from its natural EU ally Britain, enormous challenges present themselves on several fronts that will test the relationship between the Irish and Brussels in a way that she has never tested before.

Would the approach currently underway to the Killybegs issues, based on what externally appears to be a covert and somewhat authoritarian approach, would it be a good model for dealing with, for example, the looming issue of emission reductions? in Irish beef and dairy sectors?

Not only would that not be a good approach, but it could in fact be the catalyst for a rural revolt which would mean that the fish would be the least of the EU and government problems in rural Ireland.