Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the four CEOs. To be fair to the four of them, they are all on the one hymn sheet, which is very important. I know it is four organisations but it is good to see they all have the one agenda.

I want to make a few points. Mr. Murphy spoke about fishermen and the dangers and difficulty of the job. I come from north Mayo and there are a lot of fishing people there. It is a very difficult life, a hard life, and any money they earn is earned very hard. I have to say they did not get protection from previous Governments in respect of their quotas, particularly given what they do for our food stock in the world. They have never got that respect. Brexit has created a big problem. When I was in Cabinet, this was one of the issues that was left until last because those involved knew that the whole fishing industry was going to be a difficult issue in light of the situation with fishing quotas, decommissioning and everything else.

The task force was set up to assist fishermen and to help to identify the problems. When a task force is set up, it is set up because there is already a problem. There is already a problem with the industry, there is already a problem with jobs being lost and there is already a problem with people leaving the industry.

There are two things that worry me in regard to fishing and agriculture. We have people who do not want the production of cattle in this country and they do not want to produce food. We have people who do not want fishermen to fish. Then, we have a problem where boats are going to be coming in from all over Europe. Do we have the protection we need from the Government and from whatever services are there in order to protect the fishing rights we have?

Deputy Mac Lochlainn was correct that this has been talked about for a long time. This industry has gone through a very difficult time and it was sacrificed for other industries in the past. The time has come to take care of this industry and the few people we have left in it, as I know from my county. It is a very difficult situation. Like any family business or for anyone involved in any industry, they would love to see some of their family members continuing on in it and being able to make a living in it. That is not happening because sons and daughters of the people who are in this industry see how hard their parents have worked, see how difficult this life is and see the way those involved have been treated by Europe and the Government.

The time has come. I will be supporting the Minister but I will be pointing out to him that we need to be very strong. If you do not ask, you are not going to get. The Minister has to make sure that he gets out there and puts the pressure on Europe this time. He needs to say that this industry is on its knees and it needs its quota.

I do not like talking about decommissioning, which is like redundancy when jobs are lost. The witnesses are correct and the four of them have been very honest. It is a scheme that has been put there to help people who no longer want to be in the industry because they cannot make a living out of it. Just as when someone is taken out of any job, we have to give them a decent payment if they are being decommissioned or taken out of work. They should not be fighting over a few thousand euro in respect of tonnage and they should be given it gladly. If Europe wants to get rid of quota and wants to get rid of fishermen, it should be paying them.

What I will be saying to the Minister tomorrow is that we have to be strong in these talks. This is the first time we have had Brexit as a background to the negotiations. I hope the rest of Europe will be generous to the Irish fishermen because the Irish fishermen were generous to the rest of Europe in the past. I want to offer the four POs my support and I hope the Minister and the Government do the same. The witnesses are right. This is not just about the Taoiseach, the Minister with responsibility for the marine or the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Government as a whole has to be out there this time, fighting in Europe for our industry, which is on its knees.