Vol. 439 No. 3
86 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for the Marine whether France asked permission of the EU for minimum prices to be re-established for certain categories of fish; the position of Ireland in relation to this request; and the reason Ireland did not make a similar request to the last Fisheries Council in December 1993.
Earlier this month the French authorities asked the Commission to reestablish for 1994 the minimum import prices which had been introduced in 1993 for certain species of fish and to introduce minimum import prices for certain other species. The minimum import prices had been introduced early last year to counteract instability caused by the dumping of third country fish on Community markets at that time.
At the last Council of Ministers meeting in December, 1993 I proposed, in the light of the continuing weakness of the Community fisheries market and the likelihood that the instability experienced in early 1993 was going to be repeated this year, that minimum import prices should be retained for as long as their need was demonstrated. It is in this context that, when asked for our views, Ireland fully supported the recent French request.
