Dáil debates

Thursday, 28 March 2019

Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017: Second Stage

 

3:15 pm

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I urge the Minister to meet Gearóid Ó Ceallaigh. Deputy Michael Collins and the Leas-Cheann Comhairle met him and his family last night. He has five young children, including two sets of twins, but he is being forced to be idle. He is a man who wants to work, harvest fish, pay for his vessel and look after his family. The fishing industry lost out badly in 1973 and ever since has been kicked around the place. It is the poor relation in the so-called great times in the European Union where it is looking after our farmers and everything else. We now know what is happening. The Minister has sold out on the industry, as has the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne. They want to have a separate Minister in order that Deputy Creed can concentrate on being Minister for agriculture, but he is doing neither this nor that. He will not tackle the meat factories either or check the machinery used in monitoring the standard of beef. For him, it is all about big business. Nothing changes with Fine Gael. It is the party for the big people. Forget the daoine beaga; they do not matter. The landed gentry is all Fine Gael is interested in and the Minister will not listen in this instance either. It is a shame that the Independents and the Labour Party had to force a debate on this matter today. It was to go through without debate except that we stood up. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are all in bed together. Whatever Government comes out at the finish, it will not know what it is doing.

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