Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has heard the remarks of his party colleague, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. I commend the Deputy on the graphs providing a visual display of the utter injustice in terms of the allocation of quota to the Irish fishing fleet.

The current percentage of Irish waters that are within the overall jurisdiction of the Common Fisheries Policy is 12%. We have 12% of the waters but we were allocated 4% of the overall quota. What we are actually receiving is one third of what we should get on the basis of our proportion of the seas. What does that mean in real terms? It means hundreds of millions of euro lost every year. It means thousands of jobs in jeopardy. As the Minister is aware, the industry currently supports approximately 16,000 jobs overall. If we are getting one third of what we ought to be getting, one could argue that tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of euro will be lost because of the Government's repeated failure at least to try to renegotiate the Common Fisheries Policy and stand up with regard to what has happened here.

The Common Fisheries Policy is based on relative stability. In other words, it is based on the practices that were in existence when we entered the European Economic Community, as it was back then. Even though the capacity of our industry has grown, we have to adhere to the allocation based on the situation as it pertained many decades ago. How unjust and unfair is that? One sees the implications when one considers the species. That is jobs and revenue lost to our coastal communities, many of which could desperately do with that extra fight. The truth is that when it comes to fisheries policy, everybody who has operated in Brussels through the years and interacted with it knows that we are the laughing stock of Europe. They just cannot believe that we have wilfully handed away so much of our own natural resources and the potential wealth of our coastal communities. It is such a sorry thing to say that we are the laughing stock of Europe in that regard. They cannot believe that we keep doing it year in, year out.

This is all in the context of the EU-UK trade agreement. Ireland, the country that is a victim of the Common Fisheries Policy in real terms, has been hit with another 15% of our quota cut, considerably more than any other fishing fleet, and €43 million per year lost. Here we are, almost six months later, and there is no evidence of burden-sharing. Where is the fight from the Government for a fair outcome after the EU-UK trade agreement, especially considering what I have just said about the historical approach of Europe?

I refer to bluefin tuna. Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan was right to raise that issue. The situation in respect of bluefin tuna is an absolute scandal. It is one of the most lucrative fish in the world. Thanks to species management internationally, it has been recovering in recent times. It is plentiful in Irish waters but we have zero allocation of quota: nothing. To add insult to injury, we are allowed to catch and release, so one can catch the fish with tourists and just release them again. We are involved in scientific surveys. For Christ's sake, it is unbelievable. The fishing fleet of the European Union has had an increase of 78% - tens of thousands of tonnes - in the quota of bluefin tuna in recent years, but we have not been allocated a single fish. Imagine what it would do for our inshore fishing fleet if they were to be given some of that quota. Who is fighting for us? Who is making this case? It is absolutely astonishing.

Senior officials of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have stood over this approach for many years under Minister after Minister. We do not have a dedicated Minister of State for the marine, never mind an actual dedicated Minster for the marine at Cabinet. We are the only island nation in the European Union but we do not have a dedicated Minister who would only focus on the marine and could deal with these senior departmental officials and get them to shape up and fight for a fair share of resources for this country. It is astonishing. The situation in respect of bluefin tuna alone tells one everything one needs to know about what is going on in terms of the State fighting for our people.

The seafood task force has been established. I have spoken to many people who are participating on it. It is critically important that if it has agreed in good faith an approach we need to take, that approach is implemented with heart and soul and fire and passion. We have ground and time to make up and we need to fight hard for our interests at European level. That is critical.

I refer to the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA. My God, if anything represents what is going on in fishing communities and what has gone wrong for so long, it is the performance of the SFPA. As the Minister is aware, PwC did an analysis of that organisation. It concluded the SFPA is dysfunctional, not fit for purpose and in need of urgent reform. The utter failure to make that organisation work effectively in partnership with and with respect for fishermen and fish producers around the island has led to the disaster relating to the weighing system process. In my opinion, based on the conversations I have had with fishermen around the coast, the SFPA views our fishing community as if they are criminals. It assumes the fishers are guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent. That is the type of culture that is there.

Oversight and regulation are important. We need to protect our precious resource and prevent overfishing. I recently visited a fish factory in Killybegs and I saw fish being landed at the harbour onto a trailer with water that took them a short distance to the factory. I saw the fish being weighed on a state-of-the-art and sealed weighing system with which only the SFPA can tamper. The National Standards Authority of Ireland can come in unannounced at any time to see whether the weighing system is doing what it is supposed to be doing, but that was not enough. That is a lot of oversight. There are CCTV cameras all around the factory, looking down at this weighing system as the fish go over it. Those CCTV cameras beam directly to the offices of the SFPA. I cannot think of any other industry with that level of oversight, where the staff of the regulator can literally watch the entire process happening for as long as they want. If that is not enough, they can come into the factory and look at the production end, where there is a trolley of fish in boxes. Each box weighs 20 kg and there are 60 boxes on the trolley, so that is a total of 1.2 tonnes. One can go into the freezer system. My God, if you want to regulate them, you can regulate them. You can regulate them to the nth degree. In fact, our seafood sector is the most regulated in all of Europe. How in God's name did we get to a situation where we have allowed the European Union and the European Commission to reach a conclusion that Irish fishers have overfished and are involved in widespread illegality? Where is the evidence? A whole industry has been accused of overfishing but it has not been given the evidence. I submitted a parliamentary question on the matter to the Minister and his departmental officials said it cannot be released. My God. Can the Minister imagine a person being accused of a crime - the fishermen are being accused of a crime - and found guilty but not given the evidence? The person is punished but was not given the evidence, so never had a chance to defend himself.

The report was leaked to a number of organisations, which have behaved deeply unfairly by putting it into the public domain. It was leaked to the media and certain organisations but was not given to the people who are facing accusations.

Flowing from that is the utter disaster that is the SFPA and the way it has conducted itself on matters affecting people living on our coasts. It is a dysfunctional organisation. We now have a situation where every fisherman must weigh his or her catch, including non-quota species, on the pier or harbour. Fishermen have to take the fish out of the iceboxes to do so. Christ almighty, seafood regulations state that the cold chain must be protected. The fish must be stored at the required temperature the whole way through the process and that must be guaranteed in respect of any sales that are made. Bord Iascaigh Mhara is a good organisation that is trying to promote Irish seafood across the world and work with the industry to develop technology and standards. It is trying to promote the tremendous seafood we have in this country. However, fishermen are being told to take the fish out of the iceboxes and keep it in the open heat before putting it back again. A system has been imposed that puts fishermen at an utter disadvantage relative to their competitors and undermines all the work of BIM. One arm of the State is fundamentally undermining another arm of the State that is progressive and effective.

The Government has never got a grip on the senior officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the SFPA. This is happening on the Minister's watch. He is a Donegal man from a coastal community. He has been told at every single meeting he has attended around the coast what the issues are. I commend him on the town hall meetings he conducted. That engagement was a good initiative. The Minister heard from the horse's mouth that the officials are completely out of synch with the communities with which they are supposed to work. I will draw an analogy to illustrate the point I am making. When it comes to policing, a garda who treats people with respect and uses common sense is a garda who is respected in the community. He or she enforces the law while also explaining the law and respecting people in the community. People will work with gardaí like that. However, where a garda treats people with contempt and like criminals from the start, and looks down his or her nose at them, then we have ineffective policing. That is what the SFPA has become. The agency was handed a template in Killybegs and I cannot believe it has not presented it to the European Commission and said: "Look at the standard of regulation we have reached and the level of oversight we have in being able to watch people on CCTV and monitor what they are doing closely."

The Minister needs to get a grip on the senior officials in his Department and the SFPA. The seafood sector task force and the town hall meetings are the right way to go. He has heard what needs to be heard. As a fellow Donegal man who, like the Minister, has spoken to fishermen and people in all these coastal communities, I say to him it is time for big change. It is time for the Minister to deal with his officials and tell them straight he needs them to fight for Ireland and do everything they can to rectify the wrongs that were done. The Department needs to show the fishermen and fish producers it has their back and will fight for them with all its might and main. If the Minister can achieve that, he may be able to deal with the protesting fishermen who are coming to Dublin next Wednesday and show them he is making a difference. There were protestors here last week and there will be more next week. If the Minister can deal with the issues both those sets of protestors are putting to him, he can look back on his days in government with great pride.

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