Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a difficulty with the proposal for Thursday's business, which the Labour Party representative on the Business Committee, Deputy Brendan Ryan, raised at the most recent meeting. It is proposed to take all Stages of the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017 in three hours on Thursday. This Bill was introduced two years ago and was put on hold at that stage. The Bill is currently still before the Seanad and I understand that clarification is to be provided by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in that House tonight. Letters are to be read into the record and so forth. In that context, it is entirely unacceptable that we would schedule legislation before it has concluded in the Upper House, particularly when that legislation is contentious. This Bill was withdrawn two years ago and for the benefit of those who do not understand, it aims to put a legal form of voisinagein place, that is, a neighbourhood agreement between Northern Ireland and the Republic in terms of sea fisheries. The idea of fast-tracking it was to have it completed in advance of the exit of Britain from the EU, which was expected this Friday but that is not going to happen now. We have some time to deal with this legislation and my party is seeking clarification on a number of points. I ask the Taoiseach to allow some reflection on all of this. It is something about which we can build consensus in this House because a neighbourhood agreement is important. The Taoiseach already stated earlier that the Government is preparing to compensate fishermen in this State in the event that they are excluded from UK waters. I ask that we would not schedule all Stages of this Bill this week. Perhaps we could deal with Second Stage on Thursday, but we should not conclude the Bill-----

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