Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is worth reflecting on the fact some of the boats that fish in our zero to six nautical miles zone, or had fished there up to October 2016, would not consider themselves to be UK citizens, although others would. This is a complex area and I think we are doing the right thing by reinstating the arrangements.

The contributions fall into a series of areas which I hope to deal with comprehensively, and I will refer to my individual notes later. There is a danger we will start to conflate two issues in the debate: one is the principle of access and the other is management issues. The Bill only deals with the principle of extending or reinstating access that existed up to 2016. It is not about the idea of how we manage these resources. I accept management is a really important part of the issue and it is a very complicated piece of work, involving socioeconomic, scientific and environmental issues, stakeholder driven and involving livelihoods in two jurisdictions. Management is a complex piece of work and it is important that we do not get bogged down in regard to a specific species. Deputy Gallagher raised this in the context of the Supreme Court ruling. At paragraph 28, Mr. Justice O'Donnell stated: "In particular I agree that reciprocity is only required at the general level of fishing, and is not required at the level of each species." There is a danger in this debate that we get captured by one particular sub-sector of the inshore fishing endeavour, which would be unfortunate. It is about the broader inshore sector. I was asked by Deputy Martin Kenny or Deputy Ferris whether I met the inshore fisheries forums. There is no representative group of the fishing industry I have met more in recent times than the inshore fisheries forums, most recently as part of the broader consultation in Clonakilty, which was mentioned by many.

With regard to consultation generally, the context in which we find ourselves in the House in an effort to get this passed is one people can interpret for themselves in terms of the Bill being introduced originally in the Seanad. While I do not propose to go into that, people are familiar with the circumstances. Neither can I accept Deputy Breathnach's comments, which I think are also unfortunate, although I accept we had good engagement bilaterally. He referred to a stage-managed arrest. The enforcement authorities of the State do not act at the political direction of the Government or anybody else. I think-----

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