Opposition senators are urging the Government to consult with the fishing industry before passing legislation which would restore an informal agreement to allow Irish and Northern Irish trawlers fish a six-mile zone between Ireland and the UK.
The Voisinage agreement was struck down following a Supreme Court challenge in 2016.
Legislation to restore the agreement was due to be debated and voted on in the Seanad tomorrow.
However, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin senators raised concerns today that members of the fishing industry had not been consulted on the Fisheries (Amendment) Bill.
"I don't want to see this house being used to rush a piece of legislation through mainly for the optics and that is what I believe is happening," Fianna Fail Senator Diarmuid Wilson said.
The UK continues to recognise the Voisinage agreement so Irish vessels remain free to fish inshore waters around Northern Ireland, but Northern Irish vessels do not have reciprocal rights.
This led to the arrest of two Northern Ireland fisherman in Dundalk Bay earlier this month.
A spokesman for Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries Michael Creed said the Government is committed to ensuring reciprocal access for Irish and Northern Irish vessels within the six nautical mile zone and to formally underpinning voisinage arrangements by law.
"Having consulted with all parties and industry representatives, the Government will seek to progress the bill to completion in the Seanad on Thursday," he said.
However, Sinn Féin Senator Padraig Mac Lochlainn said there had been no effort made to consult with fishing organisations in the last two years. He said the debate should be deferred, pending consultation with fishing organisations.
Independent Senator Gerard Craughwell also cautioned against passing the bill before knowing the outcome of Brexit. "We do not want to find ourselves signing to up to something in fisheries which we may regret in a post-Brexit world," he said.
Earlier, Tánaiste Simon Coveney appealed to Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin to support the bill. "We are in the business of preventing border infrastructure both in the Irish Sea and on land," he told the Dáil during Leaders' Questions.
Minister Creed also told the Dáil: "We are merely proposing to re-instate a reciprocal arrangement that has existed long before the London Convention in the early 1960s. Our fishermen in the Republic of Ireland still enjoy a right and an entitlement to fish in Northern Ireland inshore sector".
Fianna Fáil's fisheries spokesperson in the Dáil, Charlie McConalogue, said his party supported the Voisinage agreement in principle, but warned that it was essential the minister engage with the industry before passing the bill.
Mr McConalogue said there was still time for the minister to meet representatives of the industry next week and pass the final part of the legislation before the UK is scheduled to leave the EU on 29 March.
He said they would support the bill passing committee stage in the Seanad tomorrow, but would seek to have report and final stage deferred until after the industry had been consulted.
He urged the minister to use next week's Dáil and Seanad recess to meet fishing organisations.
