Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Chairman for selecting this matter for the Adjournment debate. While this matter relates to a small number of people in the west, draft net fishing has been a way of life, reared many families and helped families to educate their children, including at third level. It was their way to supplement social welfare incomes. In recent years, people feel that they have been under attack by the Department and other agencies. The Minister of State might relay to his counterpart the fact that few fishermen are affected.

I wish to discuss the cost of getting a licence. For an eight-week period and hoping that the weather is good and that one will be able to fish, a licence costs €545. A constituent presented at my clinic recently. He has a quota of 40 tags, which means that he is allowed to catch 40 fish. If he is lucky with the weather, he will do so. If the weather is bad, he will not get the chance. Given the licence fee, each tag costs €13.62. That does not provide one with an opportunity to make a few euro on the transaction. The fishermen tell me this is the dearest licence in the entire country and that draft net licences elsewhere are cheaper than in the west of Ireland. Why does the Government charge €545 to people in the west of Ireland; why does the same rate not apply nationwide?

If the Government does not want to have draft net fishermen in Ireland, in the west of Ireland or in north County Mayo, I call on the Minister of State and on the Government to put in place a decent package. While I am open to correction in this regard, I believe that 116 people are involved in north Mayo. I assure the Minister of State that were a proper package put on the table, a significant percentage of them would take it. At present, they are being forced out of fishing by stealth. They are being forced out by the Government and by outside interests. This is unfair because fishing was a way of life in rural Ireland. Such people fought their landlords in the past to hold onto their fishing rights. At present, the new landlords, the Government, are taking away their rights and are not allowing them a living from this practice. They have been taken out by stealth through the overcharging of the licence, the shortening of the time period and by introducing quotas for them.

I ask the Government, through the Minister of State, to reduce the price of the licence. Second, the Minister should put on the table a decent package that would be of assistance. If the Government wishes such people to desist from this activity, putting such a package on the table would succeed in this regard. Third, I ask that the season be extended to provide the fishermen with an opportunity to use the quota available to them. As matters stand, draft net fishing is extremely difficulty. One depends on the weather and the kind of summers one has, particularly in the west of Ireland. The last few summers have been extremely difficult with much flooding and the fishermen were unable to fish.

I hope the Minister of State will have good news for me. These fishermen believe they have no one to represent them or speak up for them. They consider this to be a way of life that is similar to cutting turf. This week, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, announced he would allow turf cutting for an additional year. Everyone knows this is because of the local and European elections, as well perhaps because of a certain treaty that is coming up at the end of the year. This is the reason these fishermen do not, and did not support Europe the last time, because they consider that EU and Irish legislation, as well as Irish landlords, namely, Ministers, are trying to take away their livelihood and their business by stealth.

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