Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I compliment Deputy Creed on the motion he has put before the House. I want to take up a point mentioned by Deputy Stanton, namely the criminalisation of fishermen. The Minister and the Minister of State should immediately introduce the necessary legislation to get rid of this. It is wrong. These are hard-working men and women in a hard-pressed industry. We have seen many tragedies over the years, as has the Leas-Cheann Comhairle in his constituency. The people of this country have great respect for fishermen. They know they work hard and that it is a difficult life. In my constituency and others, fishermen do not have the wealth that builders and others had for the last 20 years when things were going well. Fishermen have always had it hard. It is a hard life. The least we can do is support them in their hour of need. I have heard from fishermen on the west coast that when the boats are near shore they seem to be picked up easily by the naval men, yet the Spanish fishermen and those of other nationalities can come into our waters and steal our fish. They can break the law and we do not seem to do anything about it. We let them away with it because they are from the EU, yet when they are our own people we keep them down and try to make sure they cannot make a living.

The fishermen of this country were sold out over the years by previous Governments, and particularly by Fianna Fáil. They have been sold out for the agriculture sector. Fishing is a sector in which we should be strong, but we are not. Now we have a major problem with fuel. The Minister and the Minister of State will be in Brussels on 23 July. I ask them to tell the Commissioner that we need something done for our fishermen now. We need to make sure that we protect the industry and retain the few people that are left in it. In my constituency, if one sees a fishing boat now it is a tourist attraction, although thousands of people used to live and work in that industry.

If the Ministers do not understand why coastal people voted "No" in the referendum, it is because they have been put out of their jobs and are over-regulated. I do not blame Europe for this but Irish Governments. As Deputy Stanton said, when making regulations we cannot just go one step but must go ten steps further. This has become a major problem. Everybody trying to make a living in this country is sick and tired of being over-regulated by people who have never employed anybody in their lives. Those people's cheques will arrive this month whether they go to work or not, but the fishermen must go out and work hard in all kinds of weather and when they bring in their catch they must hope and pray they will get a decent price for it. In some cases they do not. It is time we realised we have one of the best available commodities and we are not using it. We are not supporting fishermen and giving them the help they need.

Deputy Stanton mentioned something about which I spoke in the Dáil ten years ago, although I never thought it would come back to haunt us so fast. I said that within an election or two we would have a problem with water quality and it would be an election issue. I never thought it would happen so quickly but it happened in Galway. We are not far away from the next crisis, which will be about food. We are importing so much food to this country that if there is a scare in some other country — when people start dying from a disease or getting cancer from certain foods — we will have none of our own. We will have neither our fishermen nor our farmers and we will be producing nothing. We will have let the fishermen go out of business.

I was recently in Wexford for a meeting of the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body, and it was a shame to see so many marvellous boats tied up along the shore. They have been taken out of commission by Europe and by the Irish Government. This is a disgrace and something needs to be done. Fishermen need support now. They have been a quiet people for a long time. I am calling on the Minister and the Minister of State to come back from Europe with a decent package for them and to fight for our coastal communities. We are letting the Spaniards in and they are robbing us of our fish.

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