Ireland will lose over 6,000 tonnes from this year's 47,000 tonne mackerel quota because of illegal fish landings allegedly by Irish vessels at two Scottish ports.
That amount is worth around €12 million to Irish fishermen working in the lucrative mackerel sector.
The European Commission is taking legal advice on how to penalise Ireland for a further 35,000 tonnes of fish allegedly landed illegally at the two ports between 2001 and 2005.
The landings came to light following raids last year by British police who discovered a system that allegedly allowed boats - including several Irish vessels - to offload thousands of tonnes of undeclared fish.
At a meeting with the EU Fisheries Commissioner, Joe Borg, the Minister for Communications, Natural Resources and the Marine, Noel Dempsey, discussed a number of separate cases against Ireland relating to under-reporting of catches.
If the commission is not satisfied with Ireland's response, we could ultimately face fines worth millions of euro.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Minister Dempsey said a raft of measures being put in place had met with the approval of the commission.
These included a new computerised system, a doubling of the number of sea fisheries office, as well as creation of a new sea fisheries authority.
