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

I have been meeting with fishing organisations in south-west Cork, as well as Donegal, Galway and Wexford, over the past 12 months or more. These are people with more knowledge than myself, and every one of them has asked me to pose the Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill in the best way possible. I am trying to do that. However, it is not just that alone. This has been a decimating year for fisheries. We had the weighing crisis at the piers not so long ago. There was also the situation with Brexit, where a disastrous deal was agreed to that should never have been agreed to. That was negotiated by Michel Barnier and seemingly no negotiator on behalf of the Irish fishermen, but maybe he was negotiating on behalf of other fishing sectors in Europe. We lost 25% of the pelagic quota. On my way up to this meeting I had fishermen ringing me asking what was going to happen here today and where did I stand on this Bill. They probably knew that already but they just wanted to make sure they had a voice at the table. A lot of those who are not landing quota species are going to end up getting little or no compensation out of the tie-up scheme that has been agreed to. I was talking to fishermen on my way up here today who feel that it is an extremely unfair situation they find themselves in. They are not part of the massive fleets. I know the bigger fleets are penalised the most but these fishermen certainly feel there is some room around a once-off payment to them and that they should be incorporated into the yearly compensation package for the tie-up scheme. That is something that needs to be looked at down the road. I am opposing this section.