Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The research work going on in the north-west Atlantic on the catch, tag and release of bluefin tuna is welcome. It may help to establish what the stocks are like there. It is disappointing to say we do not expect to get anything out of it. We should be going into this in a much more forceful manner to try to ensure that our fishermen get a fair share. I said at the outset that nine tenths of the territory of Ireland is in the Atlantic Ocean and yet we find that other countries have access to those waters. Whatever those countries have done in the past - perhaps they caught these fish 30 or 40 years ago, built up some kind of a stock and are therefore able to make an argument for it - the fact is they are in our territorial waters doing it. That has to be taken into account.

With regard to Brexit, can the Minister inform us if Britain got any of this quota? Is that a possibility that we could look at in the future? The big issue here is the sense of unfairness that an awful lot of Irish people have about the whole notion of where the European Union has gone down the years and certainly in regard to our fisherman. We have all met them and we all know the grievances they have but our fishermen in particular feel very aggrieved that they are restricted in so many ways in which they can make a livelihood. They see huge trawlers coming in from other places, particularly from other European countries, making massive catches and just taking them away with them. There are all kinds of restrictions on them as well but the truth is our quota for much of our fishing is low compared to many of these other countries. With regard to bluefin tuna, it is very clear cut. There are a lot more of them in our waters now than there was. There is a possibility of looking for something here and we should be going out in an aggressive way to try at least to give some hope to the fishing community that the Irish Government will fight its corner. I implore the Minister to ensure we look for even a small quota in the recreational side of it to ensure bluefin tuna can be a fish that is very lucrative and which Irish fisherman can gain something from.

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