Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Pringle and Connolly.

While I represent the constituency of Dublin Central, I am contributing on the Island Fisheries (Heritage Licence) Bill because of my very long association and relationship with one of the islands, Oileán Chléire, County Cork, and because of my visits to many other islands. I know about and value the benefits of island life, which I have experienced over many years. The islands have a special, unique atmosphere and way of life, not to mention scenery, natural beauty, peace and tranquility.

The wide range of skills that islanders have had to develop over the years are also very obvious because they depend on each other so much and that community spirit is evident.

I am not looking at islands through rose-tinted glasses because I also know the difficulties, pressures and practicalities of living on islands and the extra costs, in particular of transport of goods and animals on and off the islands, the way islands can be cut off due to adverse weather conditions and the effect of those weather conditions on the infrastructure and roads on the islands. It is vital that islanders can make a living - a viable income - in order to stay on the islands. Otherwise, we are going to see an increase in the outward flow to cities and abroad. We know island populations are falling and the viability of island life is under threat. We could do without any more Blasket Island scenarios.

Islanders have traditionally depended on farming and fishing but life has been particularly difficult for island fishermen. The Bill goes some way towards addressing those difficulties. I will use some of the time left to me to refer to what an island fisherman, a young man whom I know, said about the reality of life for him as a fisherman. He has been fishing all his life since he was a youngster right up to adulthood when he had his own purpose-built 10 m inshore potter. He invested heavily in that. He had taken out a mortgage on it but he was forced to downsize to a 20 ft. fibreglass boat a number of years ago. Part of the reason for downsizing was an inability to make repayments. He was forced to buy a licence to allow him to fish in an area where he had been fishing all his life and where generations of his family had also fished. He believes in the importance of regulating access to the fishing industry. Otherwise, it would be a free for all with unlicensed operators depleting the stocks.

In his 20 years fishing he tried to incorporate conservation measures into his fishing activities such as V-notching programmes, minimum size limits, maximum size limits for lobster and brown crab and also voluntary closed seasons. What he was doing was sustainable and he felt that was vital in order to protect the stocks and ensure viability. However, he said what is not sustainable is the current licensing system where inshore and part-time island fisherman have to pay huge amounts for a licence. He said that is preventing any young island fisherman from even considering having a future in the industry, which would otherwise enable them to make a living on the island. He also said the current licensing structure does not fit with the inshore way of fishing. It was designed for bigger boats where their ability to catch fish was measured by the amount of power, also known as kilowatts. Due to those boats becoming even bigger there is a scarcity of kilowatts and it could cost up to €1,000 to buy even one. I appreciate that talk of kilowatts is another aspect of the issue but the point he is making is that small island fishermen are being forced to compete against the large multinational fishing companies to buy the kilowatts. His point is that the Government has a responsibility to prevent our natural resources from effectively becoming privatised by monopolies. In most other countries in the world small inshore boats have a permit that allows them to fish, which is not tied to engine power and so they do not have to compete with the multinational cartels to buy access to the natural resources.

The 20 ft. boat he currently uses for fishing is too small to safely fish around the island which is eight miles offshore. He has to push the boat to its limits in order to make it profitable. Then he must also steam eight miles to the mainland to land his catch and collect bait often in poor conditions. The current licence does not allow him to upgrade as well as the cost factor being prohibitive.

B'fhearr leis fanacht ar an oileán, páirt a ghlacadh sa phobal agus leanúint ar aghaidh ag iascaireacht ach tá sé imithe anois as a bhaile dúchais. Ba mhaith liom aitheantas speisialta a thabhairt do na hoileáin sa Ghaeltacht agus tacú leo as an tslí ina bhfuil siad ag leanúint ar aghaidh leis an nGaeilge chun í a choimeád beo.

The Bill is going some way towards addressing the issues. What the Minister said earlier was disappointing but I hope that we can address them on Committee Stage.

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