Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the groups for being here today. The Joint Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs has been dealing with what it takes to sustain a viable rural community. We were coming close to the end of putting our programme together but we had not had representatives of the fishing industry before the committee. It is a very important industry. It is important to the fishermen and crews but also to communities around our country. I am delighted that the witnesses are here today. It is not an active day in the Dáil and still there are quite a lot of Deputies present, a lot more than we often have even on an active day in the Dáil. That demonstrates that all of the Deputies and Senators here have a huge amount of interest.

There are huge issues here, especially in respect of the smaller fishermen out there and the quotas the witnesses speak about. They spoke about 87% of a quota going to a certain sector of fishermen and 13% to the fishermen of the south west. That is a huge anomaly and must be addressed.

There are also other issues. Perhaps the witnesses can enlighten me as to why a huge gap such as between the 87% and the 13% has been allowed to develop. There is a review going on at present in which there is quite a lot of interest but very little is coming from it. My worry is that there are superpowers which have the finances to convince people to continue with this situation, making life a little bit more difficult for those that share the 13%. They would not have the finances available to counteract the big guns. We need to tease that out and discuss it here. I hope what we discuss here goes back to the Minister, Deputy Creed.

There are also other issues, such as those around crew members. I have been contacted by crew members. It is impossible for fishermen to get them in a way, because when the boat is parked up it is extremely difficult for people in this sector to access the social welfare system. A lot of people cannot do so.

As we know, fishermen cannot go out to fish because of poor weather for many months of the year. The crew will not get social welfare. On that basis, fishermen cannot get their crew. There are huge difficulties. The Department of Social Protection needs to recognise and respect those issues. It is difficult enough to get people to commit themselves to go out fishing because it is a tough, tough job. My mother brought me up to respect fishermen because of the difficulties that the job entails.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will not recognise courses provided by the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy. That is a huge issue for many fishermen from the south west. Many travel to Donegal to attend a recognised course. This costs them a couple of thousand euro while a course is being provided locally in Ringaskiddy but not recognised by the Department. This issue has been raised with me many times.

Quotas are a huge issue for ordinary fishermen. There are very poor landing facilities in some communities and poor pontoon facilities for the small inshore fisherman. These issues make fishermen’s lives far more difficult. Why should a man coming home with his catch for the day have to walk across several boats to bring the catch onshore? That is very unfair. There is no understanding of the way fishermen work. Some of them get up at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. and work all day. They feel they are being disrespected when they come ashore.

I would like to work with the witnesses on these issues in the future. I want to see how members, as politicians, can help them and perhaps we can work together.