A new Fishing Boat Register was established in 1990 in accordance with European Community requirements in order to get a more accurate picture of the Irish fishing fleet and to form a reliable basis for ongoing monitoring and management. The establishment of the new register was widely publicised throughout the industry and in the media, and in addition registered owners of vessels were advised in writing of the requirement to re-register their vessels. The new register contains much more detailed information than the previous one and gives a more accurate profile of the fleet.
For a boat to be eligible for registration on the new register one of the essential conditions was that the boat had been previously legally registered. Therefore the creation of the new register did not provide any means of registering previously unregistered boats.