Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his permission to raise this matter. This eel business has been shamefully handled from the very beginning. Without any consultation of depth, a group of officials decided that they would obey the call contained in a European directive that sought a 40% reduction in eel fishing. They decided they would offer 100%. Let us imagine getting a directive from Europe, which one decides not alone to obey but to more than double the provisions. Their decision, in effect, was to kill off the eel fishing industry.

I am acutely disappointed, not at the presence of the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady, who is a delight to deal with and meet at any stage. My words of a castigatory nature are not against her good self. I know the Minister of State is aware of that. My disappointment is due to the fact that the Minister, Deputy Ryan, who voted in the Chamber tonight, did not see fit to explain why he had allowed this shameful neglect, this utterly shameful, despicable action by him and his officials.

When I drew the matter to his attention one evening he replied that only a few people in short-term jobs were affected. In the acute economic disarray in which we find ourselves, those jobs are the only economic mainstay of many a family in this country. There is a significant number of eel fishermen in the midlands. Eel fishing rights have been passed down from grandfather to father to son. There is to be no compensation. Their rights were wiped out overnight with absolutely no compensation yet nobody is creating a fuss. Nobody is worked up about it. Why is that the case? It is the case simply because they think they will get away with it. Then we wonder why people did not support the referendum on the Lisbon treaty. One of the main reasons was to do with turbary rights, about which at least the Minister, Deputy Gormley, has seen sense and some turf cutters have regained their rights. The rights of people handed down through generations to fish for eels in their designated waterway has been shamelessly whipped away from them with no academic or research study to back this up.

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