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

Again, this an issue which can be dealt with on Committee Stage.

The other issue is that all of us in this assembly have a responsibility to the people. We have responsibilities to ensure everyone has a fair chance in life. I was on Arranmore with Deputy Pearse Doherty earlier this year. It struck me that the island was so much apart and a place aside. It was apart from the rest. It is separated by a huge body of water and surrounded by an ocean which quite often is violent, yet we have to remember that it and the people who live on it are still a part of the country. That is the key point. We are trying to set out something which will ensure those who live on the islands, thee vibrant communities that want to have a future, will have it and set out a place where they can have it.

Nobody is going to tell me that some multinational corporation will be brought in to set up an industry on the islands. That is not going to happen. We have to recognise that the islands have a difficulty and that the only way in which we can sustain them is by ensuring access to the natural resources around them - the ocean and the bounty it gives. Farming is difficult on the islands. We have to ensure their communities have the opportunity to fish the sea, as they have always done. That is what the Bill attempts to do.

On the difficulties the Ministers of State have raised, we accept that there may be difficulties and things which will need to be dealt with. They can all be dealt with on Committee Stage. We can get through all of them.

On the point made about the legislative process and the difficulties with so many Bills in the queue and so on, is that a reason to stop doing things? It certainly is not. I appeal to the Government to recognise what is happening. The Bill is going to go through. It will be a huge show of respect for the island communities if it receives the unanimous support of everyone in the House. At the end of the day, we have to stand up to the bureaucrats who will always find a reason not to do something. In my view and that of most people who have looked at this issue, there are a small number of civil servants in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine who, for a number of decades, have destroyed the fishing industry in Ireland, even more than the European Union has. The Minister of State and the Government need to stand up to them. That is the first clink in the armour. This is the first time we can do something for the people, not for those who tell us that we cannot do things because there are rules. Rules can be changed.

The point was made that there was something illegal in the Bill. Is this not where we decide what is legal or illegal? Is this not where we make things legal if it is right to do so? The Bill is right. I appeal to the Minister of State and the Government one last time to come forward, step up to the mark, support the Bill and its progress through the various Stages and do something for the ordinary decent people who live on offshore islands to reflect the care the rest of the community has for them. Everyone in every part of the country has huge empathy for the people who live on offshore islands and the hardship they go through. We have an opportunity to do something that reflects that empathy. I again appeal to the Minister of State and the Government to join everyone in this Chamber to give the Bill unanimous support. I commend the Bill to the House and propose that it move forward.

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