To enter the Irish commercial fishing fleet, boats must first be licensed under section 222B, as inserted by the Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 1983, of the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act, 1959. Applicants must apply for a licence by completing an official application form and forward it to the Department of the Marine for consideration and decision.
The main condition which must be satisfied before a boat may be licensed is that equivalent fishing capacity be first withdrawn from the fleet. Therefore, to bring in a new/second hand boat, a boat or boats, whose tonnage and horse power is/are at least equivalent to the tonnage and horse power of the new/second hand boat, must be removed from the current sea fishing boat register and that tonnage and horse power must be active.