Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for that information. I was just getting into top gear with the navy. I do not know the name of the ship, but we have very few of them now and the navy also has fewer personnel. I have no direct experience in this area, but I have learned a great deal from the experience of my colleague, Deputy Michael Collins. He is one of the hardest working Deputies to ever come out of Cork South-West. I refer to what he has done for the fishing sector. I remember the day of the protests in Cork, when he left here to go down to those protests and then came back up here to resume his duties and to speak on behalf of those fishermen. There was an attempt by the Taoiseach to belittle Deputy Michael Collins.

He has not corrected the record of this House. We have written to the Ceann Comhairle on the matter and are waiting for the Taoiseach to correct the record. He suggested that Deputy Michael Collins was seeking personal favours from him but Deputy Collins never asked for such or looked for such and the Taoiseach needs to withdraw that suggestion. Whether it was made in the heat of battle or in the crossfire, he should not be saying things that are totally without foundation. He was being totally disingenuous towards a hard-working Deputy but the people of Cork South-West have recognised his hard work and put him back here.

The navy has been and is often quick to impound or board our own vessels in Ireland. If there is any sign of a misdemeanour, the navy will board a vessel, impound it and bring it back to port and the skippers of same will face consequences. We have a ridiculous legislative situation in the fishing industry that does not apply anywhere else. If I get penalty points on my driver licence - and I got two once - after a certain amount of time, thank God, they diminish. Fishers can be proved innocent in court but the penalty points will remain on their record. This is a bizarre situation. Since 1973 and our accession to the EU, we have lost out. The fishers of Ireland have been sold out and let down. In the most recent talks, we have been completely abandoned. We have information to the effect that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue - I have nothing personal against him - did not even open his mouth at some of the meetings. Was there some sort of side deal done whereby we would give them all the fish they wanted, they could take our waters and plunder them, if we got something else? If so, the something else was very little. We are getting less than €1 billion out of the recovery fund and sadly, half of that has been ring-fenced by the Government for green initiatives. I have nothing at all against green initiatives. I am very much in favour of them but we must have balance here. I support An Taisce and the work it does in schools, with Tidy Towns committees and so on. I support the work it does in the educational area in particular, with the green schools initiative but we must be proportionate in our dealings with the rest of the economy. We cannot just go off on this fanciful journey of introducing green legislation with no impact analysis.

To return to the issue of fishing and this legislation, I have made my point about pre-legislative scrutiny and public consultation was also required. An earlier contributor mentioned town hall meetings, which could not be held. A lot of things have slipped through without any proper consultation. We need to ensure that our waters are protected. We have a serious issue with drugs being imported by sea and there is no proper protection in place in that regard.

Mar focal scor, on the issue of plastics, we have a number of operators in Ireland who collect farm plastics. They are doing their best to keep the environment safe. We do not want any plastic ending up in the sea. However, we do not need a cabal to take over the collection of plastic, as it has, because it will diminish and destroy the single operators who did great work. They were pioneers. I know of one operator in my own area and one in Deputy Michael Collin's town of Bandon who pioneered the collection of plastic. The gentleman I know is a comhairleoir i gContae Phort Láirge, Councillor Declan Doocey. He is a hard-working family businessman who now has huge stocks of plastic on his land and is being prosecuted for that. He could not export the plastic but when he got a market for it, the cabal to which I referred, the Irish Farm Film Producers Group, IFFPG, decided to undermine him, go cheaper and close his contracts. This is not good enough. Why can we not support ordinary people in this country doing ordinary things? Why does greed always have to come into it? Some former members of a national farming organisation saw an opportunity and set up this group. They have been complaining for all of their lives about the cartels in the beef industry and now there is a cartel in the plastic recycling industry and the likes of Declan Doocey and others, one-man operators employing a couple of people and giving a very valuable service to the farmers of south Tipperary, north Tipperary, west Waterford, south Kilkenny and east Cork are being forced out of business and cast aside. They are being diminished and it is not good enough. The IFFPG people appeared before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and were questioned by Deputy Michael Collins and others but they were not truthful and did not give us the full story. They got out through the gap, laughing. There are people out there who are willing, ready and able to collect the plastic for recycling in order that it does not end up in the sea but this cabal-type outfit got together and has sucked them up. Big is not always wonderful or powerful. The small operations, the one-man operators, whether they are showbands, agricultural contractors or lorry drivers, are all fighting for support following Covid. They are doing a great job. The Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, will understand the issue of farm plastics because he is involved in agriculture himself. What the former members of a farmers' organisation that have set up this group are doing to the smaller collectors is not good enough. Above all we do not want the plastic in our ditches, dykes, drains, rivers or our seas.

I will not say much more on this Bill except that I am extremely disappointed with it. Given the Minister of State's interest in many issues, he cannot be happy with this Bill either or with the lack of public consultation, pre-legislative scrutiny and above all, impact analysis. All legislation requires that. We debated a Bill some months ago which renewed criminal legislation. A full 18 or 20 years had passed before there was any impact analysis done on that legislation. Every Bill should contain a date, after a suitable bedding-in period, for an impact analysis to determine whether it is fulfilling the functions it was set out to fulfil, whether it is fit for purpose and above all, whether there are any glaring anomalies or holes in it that could leave it open to legal challenge. Such analysis should also determine whether it sits well with the public and serves the public we are elected to represent in this House. That is very important. The fishermen of Ireland are not being served well by public representatives in this House, with a couple of notable exceptions. The Taoiseach name-dropped a few Deputies on the Order of Business. Let other Deputies do their own work but the Taoiseach should not try to take from the work of Deputy Michael Collins, who is an outstanding representative of the fishermen. I understand that the fishermen are coming to protest here next Wednesday and I look forward to meeting them.

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