Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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I am going back to the first question I asked at the beginning. I thank Ms McSherry for answering the questions to the best of her ability. What can fishermen do to turn around the negative feeling that is out there? I know Ms McSherry will say she cannot answer that question but it was the last question asked in Bantry the other day. There is a negative vibe in the world of politics towards fishing. What can they do to turn this around? Ms McSherry will probably not give me an answer that I want to hear. They asked me and it kind of caught me. I have always been vocal that we need a stand-alone Minister for fisheries. As I said, the question of fisheries got lost week in the Dáil, which proved what I am saying now. There was not a mention by the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. Obviously, the Minister for agriculture and the marine mentioned it when he came to talk about the budget. The Ministers, Deputies Chambers and Donohoe, spoke about agriculture - and rightly so - and many other things but fisheries is not at the races. If it is not at the races, it is not in for discussion and there is no hope of an improvement or a future. Young people are walking away from the industry. They are leaving the sector and telling their parents to forget the hassle. The game is ran. Even politicians tell me that. I do not believe it because we are surrounded by water and our waters are full of Irish fish. God damn it, there is something wrong when we cannot catch our own fish. We are squeezed out of our own waters. How in the name of God are we going to turn it around? I realise it is a political issue. A stand-alone Minister was refused to me in negotiations in 2020. I was told there can be no Minister because that would have to come from someone else's area. A few days later, there was a super junior Minister announced for forestry; well done to them. Does Ms McSherry have any idea about that?