Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

First, I apologise to the Minister for missing his presentation, I got caught up in another meeting. I welcome his officials. I will be brief and have one minor question. It is about infrastructure and making sure that inshore fishing has the infrastructure required to ensure it is suitable as an entity moving forward. I raise the issue in Castletownbere at present where there is a conflict on whether we have the ability for inshore fishermen to get access to the appropriate pontoon or pier. A pontoon was taken away in the last few months, there is none available and there is a clash there about making sure that inshore fishermen can safely get their fish onto the shore itself. While I have spoken to the Minister and his officials about this issue and I am aware that they are involved, we need to establish an understanding of how the big fish fleets and the inshore fisherman can work together.

Power is another issue below in the harbour itself. The inshore fishing fleet now has an issue in trying to ensure their fleet is powered. I am worried about the infrastructure. The Minister left a meeting of this committee a few months ago to visit Castletownbere in respect of a multimillion euro investment, which I fully welcome. I believe, however, that we need to have an investment policy to make sure the inshore fishermen have the same access to the infrastructure required to be sustainable going forward. The Minister might give me his view as to how we can have a shared space that can work well for both sides of this argument. It is a significant issue and having met the fishermen down there, they are fearful about the safety issues that are there at the moment. The Minister might give me an update at some stage, not today, as to how we can progress this issue.