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

I move amendment No. 18:

In page 18, after line 40, to insert the following: "(17) A successful appeal under subsection (14), in the case of a master who is an Irish citizen, shall mean points are not assigned and a notification shall not be made under section 15I(3)".

We are back to the balance of probability again, which has been a massive issue for the fishing industry. As I said earlier, it is going through massive struggles. We have put together a very bad sea-fisheries Bill. We are tabling amendments to see whether we can clean up what is a mess. It looks like none of the amendments will be accepted. If they are not accepted the writing is on the wall. I was aghast to see Deputies from the Government voting in favour of earlier amendments. They were very much not rural Deputies. I know it is a holiday time but certainly they did not know what they were voting for. I heard one of them state he did not know much about agriculture. This is about fishing and the marine. It is a bad reflection on the Government that this is the attitude out there. Marine has been the poor relation for many decades. The proof of the pudding is the dreadful deal on Brexit that was agreed running into Christmas.

The balance of probability has come up here so many times. Fishermen have said to me that it looks like the Bill will condemn fishermen because no matter whether they are innocent or guilty they will end up with penalties on their licence or on the licence of the skipper. That is a very serious worry. I am not at all in agreement with this Bill. It could be renegotiated and we could get a better deal for Irish fishermen certainly after the raw deals we have got continually down through the years. My amendment focuses on the need to change what has been agreed at government level with, I presume, Europe holding a stick over our heads once again in the fishing industry. As much as €400 million plus in blood money is earmarked to be spent across the fishing communities on projects ranging from pier upgrades to processing grants to aquaculture tie-up schemes. All of the funding is to be taken from the €1 billion EU slush fund out of the €5 billion in total that has been set aside by the EU. This paltry sum is designed to shut up the fishing industry as compensation for the theft of future billions of euro from Irish fishing communities and from the Irish people.

My amendment and the other amendments that I have put forward are meant to, in some way, lift the burden from fishermen. The offshore fleet has now been reduced to just over 100 boats so the waters are being cleared of Irish fishing vessels forever in preparation for the hundreds of foreign vessels that will replace them and fish away happily while plundering 85% or more of the pie. This continues to leave our coastal fishing communities with just under 15% of all of the fish and it is patently clear that 15% is not enough for fishermen to survive. It looks like this Bill will be foisted upon us so it will lead to further devastation and I will press my amendment.