Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú:

Once again, we are talking about fairness. The idea is to show fishers that the intent is not to absolutely hammer them for minor infringements. All present accept there is a need for sanctions and a system to deal with major infringements but the issue relates to separating minor infringements and serious ones. The fact is that we are playing around with legislation that has a fundamental flaw at its core with which we really need to deal. The Government has not taken on board the substantive amendments that could have changed the Bill into a completely different beast that could deliver for us and for fishermen. That is disappointing. In fairness to Deputy Michael Collins, he is correct that fishermen and others in the fishing industry believe they have been treated as the poor relation for many years. The Government is continuing to treat them in that way.