Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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As other members wish to speak, I will be brief. Bluefin tuna is of serious concern to many fishermen and they feel there is huge opportunity in Irish waters. This committee has been talking about this issue for a while. I have been here since 2016; it is now 2024 and we are no further ahead. Nobody is going home with a bluefin tuna in a box in Ireland. Ms McSherry stated that the quota must come from another country but Ireland has been giving its quota away. Why has there not been a deal? Why is Ireland the only country that seems to be losing its quotas to the point that it is decommissioning boats to get rid of them; putting Irish boats out of Irish waters. Other countries do not seem to have to give anything, not an inch. They do not have to give a box, 100 tonnes nor 1,000 tonnes of bluefin tuna - nothing. Surely to God, there was some negotiating leverage there through the years, given that Ireland was repeatedly giving and that another country could have been giving. We have trawlers throughout the world fishing for bluefin tuna and making brilliant incomes by it, which they deserve because they work hard for it, but yet, Irish fishermen cannot. It is an astonishing situation. It seems to me that there is weakness on Ireland's side whereby we are not able to sell ourselves in Europe whereas other countries can. Other countries can get the quota and they can come in and eat into Ireland's quota yet we cannot touch theirs.