Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, on bringing forward this motion on behalf of the many fishing families across the State, who I am sure will be watching this evening and listening to all contributions.

I visited Arranmore Island recently as part of my role as party spokesperson for the islands. It was the first of a number of island trips I hope to make in the coming months to learn more about island life and, as a person from Roscommon which is very much inland, to understand adequately the life islanders live and the places they call home so I can represent them adequately. I had several meetings on that visit and I engaged with a number of sectors, all while socially distanced. One group in particular remains with me. It was three fishermen, two gentlemen who have fished for most of their lives, and one around my age in his 20s who faces an uncertain future but who still wants a future as a fisherman. I would not imagine that this is much to ask for. I was struck by two things about the fishermen. One is how sick and tired they are of the way they are treated, and the very obvious sense that they just cannot continue with things the way they are. There was also the immediate sense that for them fishing is not just a job but that it is has been passed on to them and is something they love, although very clearly becoming more and more difficult for them to continue. Then, here comes a most bizarre penalty point system, where if one does the crime one gets the points, but if found to be innocent the points remain the same. For many fishermen this will be the last straw. The fishermen I met told me of 54 fishing boats in the 1980s, but now just six full-time fishermen remain. The Government refuses to support them and their families while super-trawlers can travel the west coast from now until April to fish every species going, when our own fishermen are being driven out of their livelihoods and fined with penalty points.

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