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

I thank the committee for creating a slot so that we could bring in the SFPA this morning. This is something I have called for since it previously attended the committee and I welcome our witnesses. There is a crisis in the fishing industry which has been going on for quite some time. In the past 12 months, in particular, we have stumbled from one crisis to another, leading to what we have seen in Cork and Dublin, that is, peaceful protests, but great anger.

There is a very strong belief within the fishing industry that the SFPA and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are not fit for purpose, and we must, as a committee, try to bridge that gap between the industry and the SFPA and others. There needs to be a rebuilding of relationships and the only way that this is possible is if we try to have monthly meetings with the SFPA to iron out issues that need to be ironed out.

The attempted ramming - I accept this is not what this session is about - of a vessel off the coast at Castletownbere, by a Spanish-registered vessel which was illegally fishing in our waters, raises the question as to why it took so long to get a Naval Service ship to the rescue of the fishing crew from Castletownbere. Why did it take so long to arrest the skipper? What are the procedures when an Irish boat is attacked in its own waters? Why is there no protection for Irish fishermen? If it was the other way around and if an Irish boat had acted in the way this Spanish one had, the feeling out there is that there would have been much swifter action. Why do Irish fishermen feel abandoned?

I have quite a lot of questions, but I respect that I have only so much time because other members need to get in. I will ask questions and perhaps the SFPA will be able to answer a number of them. Maybe I will get in again later, but if not I will write to the SFPA and submit questions to it.