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

I thank the committee, its Chairman, Deputy Pat Deering, and its staff for the work that has been done. The report is an excellent piece of work and it sets out many of the issues we expected to come out. I thank Deputies for their contributions to the debate. In truth, the Minister's response is somewhat disappointing. I acknowledge that he wrote to me. Given that others who have had problems with money messages did not even get that acknowledgement, I appreciate it. I also appreciate that he is engaged and interested, and he is trying to come up with a solution in this respect. However, it is falling well short of where we need to be.

Others have spoken about the island fishing communities and people living on the islands. The few times I have visited an offshore island, it struck me that while they were so much a part of the nation, they were also apart from the nation in a very physical sense. We can all say we are isolated in rural areas and we cannot get to places and so on, but nobody is as isolated as a person who is a couple of miles across the sea. There has to be an acknowledgement of that huge disadvantage experienced by people who live on the islands. Deputy Connolly mentioned equity, which is at the core of this. Sometimes, in order to achieve equity, we have to treat a group in an unequal manner and give them an advantage that others may not have because they exist in such disadvantage. That is at the core of this issue. This was recognised by the previous committee in its 2014 report and it was in response to that report that this Bill is with us.

There has been some positioning, in particular in regard to the Department stating that every fishing vessel has to have a licence already and it should not need a second licence. If the Government was to change the term and call it something else, such as a "fishing opportunity" or otherwise, that is fine as we are not hung up on words. The opportunity to do all of that would come when we get to Committee Stage of this legislation.

The issues have been brought forward by the various groups who came before the committee. I thank all the organisations that gave evidence and which were, in general, very constructive. Many of them come from their own set positions because they are looking after their own corner but, at the same time, many were generous enough to recognise and understand that island communities need that little bit of special attention and that extra advantage they do not have at present.

I have got very friendly with one man who now lives close to me but who was born and grew up on an island. He says the one thing they always knew they had was a bit of fishing. They had nothing else because there were no other opportunities to make a few pounds, but they could always go out on the boat and get some fish. The other point he always drives home to me is that the way those fish were caught, and the tradition of doing it that way, is something that had a unique selling point which was separate from the fish that were caught by a super-trawler in a big net.

I have spoken to some of the celebrity chefs about this idea, the niche market for fish caught in this manner. If this were done properly and marketed properly, there would be a story to the food. I think we have often talked about this from both an agricultural and a fishing-----

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