Manus Boyle (Fine Gael)

In fairness, Deputy Mac Lochlainn has covered some of the issues. He is completely right. The Minister of State spoke earlier about jobs. Regarding my job in Killybegs, even getting men to do anything is difficult because nobody can stay given the way we have been cut year after year. It is driving young people away. We will reach a stage where it will not be possible to get anyone to work in a factory or go on a vessel because it does not pay. At one time, a fisher could have gone to a bank in Killybegs and got a mortgage no bother. No one would even look at doing that now. Fishing used to be for nine months. Now it is down to nine days. One trawler had its net in the water for 12 hours and landed its mackerel last year. How sustainable is that?

When Brexit was being talked about, we were told we were going to get a deal. The next thing was that this burden sharing was thrown into it. Since that, burden sharing has not been mentioned at all. Zonal attachment seemed to work for the UK when it was doing its deal but it does not work for Ireland.

We get the crumbs off the table from Europe all the time but everybody else can go and do what they want. It is time now for Ireland to stand up and be counted. Let us call Europe out on this. What is going on with these third countries is criminal. It is time for Europe to stand up and be counted, and if we have to push for that, we have to do it. I really am happy that the Minister of State is taking an approach on the blue whiting this early on. It is good to see it. We never had that before. We need our Minister to stand tall with us, and it is good to see that. However, we also need him to go and tell Europe to look at what these people have been doing this past 15 years. It is not sustainable. The people who have been doing it right this last 20 years have been getting hammered and the people who are doing it wrong are getting away with it. When I was brought up, I was told to try to do things right and it always works out but, by God, in this instance it is not working out for Ireland. It is time now to stand up and be counted and tell Ursula von der Leyen that she has to get them sorted. The time for talking is over. Our jobs and coastal communities are dying on their feet. I cannot see many companies in Killybegs - the Minister of State was there - sustaining another year like it. Everyone is operating at a loss. Any lock of pound we had was for trying to keep going. This is total annihilation for us. It is time to bang the table and get out there and tell the Europeans that enough is enough.