Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin. I will support its motion because there is no question but that this is absolutely ridiculous. It is like putting the cart before the horse. If the system involved people being brought to court and being fined or given penalty points at that stage, that would be fine. This is not the case under this system. The Taoiseach has signed a statutory instrument and, if fishermen are held up on the high seas and get penalty points, no matter what they do and no matter what court they go to, those penalty points will not be removed.

The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is from Donegal and he understands this perhaps better than any of us. Two or three years ago his party opposed this measure. Pat the Cope Gallagher vehemently opposed it. We all supported him when he left the Chair to make the case for the fishermen. I will make the case for the fishermen along the coast of Kerry from Dingle to Cahersiveen, Renard, Kenmare and Sneem. They have a lonely and difficult job. When they fight and overcome everything else, the weather may overcome them. It is a seriously hard job. We do not have gold, oil or diamonds in this country but we have fish and we should be entitled to fish fairly and to have fair laws applied.

We are all Irishmen here. I cannot understand why the last Minister and Government tried to bring this in. Deputy Michael Collins, Martin Ferris and I met the Minister, Deputy Creed, and laid out to him that we were not going to take what he was proposing. Why has the Taoiseach done this? To whom are we beholden? Is Europe putting on pressure? Will the Minister tell us what is going on because there is no reason Irishmen should get penalty points and be penalised without the chance to fight their case in a court of law? It is very wrong.

I call on Deputy Griffin and the Minister, Deputy Foley, who claim credit for everything in our county but the weather these days, to come out and do something about this and to stop it before it goes to a vote. If they vote with the Government they will blow the fishermen out of it. Will the Government cop on before it is too late and see that what it is doing is wrong? It is unfair and it is not democratic.

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