Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I propose to share time with Deputies Tommy Broughan and Brendan Howlin, if I may.

I received the same e-mail as Deputy Creed and I believe it has summed up the situation as it relates to a family that is completely reliant on fishing for its livelihood. A husband and wife re-mortgaged a house to invest in a boat, employ a crew of five people and take to the seas. In one instance, it spent ten days, or 240 hours, at sea for a return of €725 per man before tax. Basically, they were earning €3 per hour. Moreover, the same fishermen then are obliged to incur the stringent regulations applied by the authorities in Ireland, while French, Spanish and fishermen from other countries are looking on and laughing at the regime here.

This pertains to realising that a group of people exists within our society who, because of climactic and bureaucratic conditions, incur serious losses of income. However, they wish to sustain their livelihoods and their coastal communities because they have done so for generations. As the lady who wrote the e-mail stated, when they hit bad times they want a leg up and not a handout. Moreover, they do not wish to incur the bureaucratic nightmare that relates to fisheries policy. However, they want to see put in place a realistic mechanism that would assist them through, if one pardons the pun, choppy waters. During times when crewmen and women are not bringing in catches and their incomes are being seriously depleted — they are deemed to be self-employed — they should not be obliged to go cap in hand to the local community welfare officer to beg to supplement their income. A form of tax incentive or tax break could be put in place on the basis they are sustaining communities in coastal regions. Moreover, the Government should consider a form of social welfare mechanism to assist such men and women on the basis that their income fluctuates between one end of the year and the other, that would not necessarily be breaking EU direct aid rules.

I ask the Chair to let me know when I have spoken for four minutes. I am anxious about the other Members——

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