Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is funny how things do not change here. Sometimes things go in cycles. I remember that in the early part of the last decade, in 2003 and 2004, the whole issue of fisheries management was centre-stage. I remember the then Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, had a bit of a struggle in his own party. There was a very heated contest around the introduction of new regulatory measures. At the time, I very much supported him in introducing the sort of sea fisheries protection authority which we are now discussing. I remember at the time sitting on a committee when the manager from one of the banks in Killybegs came begging us for help. He realised he had made a mistake. He had lent €400 million to the fleet there. A photograph of the fleet would show that any one of the vessels would catch more or less the entire Irish quota. The maths did not add up. The €400 million would not be paid back by what would be caught within the quota. The fishermen at the time said they were sick and tired of the illegality. They were sick and tired of catching four or five times the quota and operating through different forms of subterfuge. They said it was time to clean up their act.

Here we are 14 years later and we are still not cleaning up our act. I stand with the Minister on this issue. I think it would be a real tragedy for this Dáil to vote down a proper regulation of our fisheries, a proper penalty points system, and I say that for the sake of the fishermen. In the long run, if we continue to allow fishing to exceed quotas and to ignore the environmental prerogative to protect our fish stocks, there will be no fishing industry. It is in the industry's interest for us to have a sustainable, properly regulated and properly policed system so that fair play can apply and the fishermen and women who adhere to the rules know that they are not being undermined by a system which allows someone who is willing to bend the rules to get away with it. It beggars belief that 15 years on we still do not seem to recognise the basic principle that protecting our environment equals protecting our rural communities in the long run. That is why I support the Minister.

People say that the Minister has not heeded the Supreme Court judgments. I find that hard to believe. I am not a lawyer. I trust the Supreme Court to make the decision, but I have confidence that the Department has taken them into account in resetting these regulations.

I heard what the Minister of State said - I accept her word on it - to the effect that we have adjusted to take account of the Supreme Court recommendations. If there is a sound legal argument against that, I am sure someone will take a case and let the matter be decided by the courts. It is not for the Dáil to become a quasi-Supreme Court.

When I heard the various arguments, none convinced me that the institutions we have set up cannot be trusted or that we could not possibly have anything that is in any way influenced by the statutory organisations we have put in place to try to provide such protection. I despair of the sentiment that we do not trust our own system. When I hear the wholesale demeaning of the European Union regulations, I would say that I am critical of the European Union in that it has not been strong enough on fisheries protection over the past 40 to 50 years. We sold out when we entered the Union. We sold out our fishermen to benefit our farmers. I would love to get a hell of a lot back. I am glad that the sort of debate we should be having here took place in the Seanad earlier. There is a real interest among Members of the Upper House in establishing the type of marine protected areas that would protect our natural world from all the international vessels fishing in our waters. Most of the vessels fishing off our coast are from other jurisdictions. We would protect our fisheries stocks for the future if we went the route to which I refer. I wish we would look at that as an urgent issue for debate in the Dáil. We cannot blithely ignore the European Union regulations. I accept the Minister of State's argument that we will lose €37 million. If we sign up to the motion, we will throw away money with the fines. There are also other significant implications for us.

We also need to stop being the country that is top of the league in terms of environmental infringement. At some point, that will cost us. The rest of Europe will catch up with this country and say that we can no longer play fast and loose with environmental regulations, which is what we are proposing to do. I support the Government in this approach, not because it is a great champion of the environment but because we have to hold the line on this issue and stand up for putting in place a penalty points system, not weakening, debasing and undermining the Common Fisheries Policy. We should then seek, from a position of strength, to go further and set up marine protected areas in which fishing stocks would be protected and move away from the system whereby a small number of very large vessels seem to dominate Irish industry interests and are able to obtain a huge chunk of the quota. I would much prefer to see a more labour-intensive system where we support smaller inshore fleets and more sensitive, sustainable fishery methods. There are a whole range of things we need to do on this. The recently introduced proposal on the restriction of the number of large vessels operating within the 6-mile limit, stopping the catching of sprat - the feedstock for larger fish - starting a move towards the creation of significant marine protected areas, accepting the wisdom of E.O. Wilson, the great biologist, to the effect that we should set aside half of our natural world for conservation, because it is in dire trouble. In that context, the extinction of species, particularly in our marine environment, is a real threat we have to address. That is what we should be debating, not looking for further delay, prevarication, excuses and avoiding taking responsibility for looking after our fishing stocks and, by dint of that, our fishing industry.

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