Fishermen say they are being forced to tie up their boats due to the soaring cost of fuel.
The Cork based Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation say crews are struggling to cover their costs, with the price of fuel increasing from around 30c to over €1.20 per litre over the past two years.
Fishing groups are calling on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to bring down the cost of fuel and are meeting with Minister Darragh O'Brien on Wednesday....
They are calling on his Department to release around €6 million that they say is left over from a European fund to help the fishing industry.
Speaking to RedFM News, Patrick Murphy from the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation says rural economies would be devastated by any reduction in fishing:
"There's 16,000 plus people directly employed by fishing and that number might seem small, but you can imagine if Dell or Apple had 16,000 people employed in an area in a rural part of the country, and next thing they told the government these jobs are gone. There'd be pandemonium, these are critical jobs to keep coastal communities and towns and villages around the coastline going."
