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

The difficulties many farmers face at the moment have been well spelled out here. The price they receive for their produce is one of the primary issues that needs to be addressed. While I understand the Minister, and previous Ministers, have made the point that it is not the Minister's job to set prices or interfere in that, it is the Minister's job to ensure farmers receive a fair crack at the whip and there is fairness in respect of what they do. They have not been getting that to date and they continue to not get that. There needs to be a renewed effort in respect of that.

I wish to raise with the Minister an issue for people involved in the coarse fishing industry. Many of them import bait from the UK to use here for many of the competitions and so on. They have been told they cannot import that bait anymore. Hundreds of thousands of euro worth of this maggot-based product is imported every year for use in that industry. Recently, I received an email from the Brexit division in the Department stating:

I refer to your recent enquiry to this Division in respect of importing live fish bait. I have been informed by the relevant Department Official that there are no harmonized EU rules for the import of insects for non-food use into the Union, so, in the absence of National Rules regarding the conditions for their import, it is not possible to import live fish bait into Ireland from a Third Country (e.g. UK) at this time. Please feel free to contact this Division again if you require further assistance.

Hopefully, when Covid goes and we get beck to normal tourism activity, we will have many tourists coming to Ireland who will engage in fishing competitions and so on. That part, however, is going to be missing. This issue requires the Minister's intervention to ensure it is sorted out. This is a serious issue for many people.

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