Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I raise a few issues arising from my observations as a representative of a coastal community and fishing area and from concerns raised with me by civil society groups and representatives of fishers and other workers in the fishing sector. I have spoken on a number of occasions in the House about the marine and coastal environment in the context of Brexit and its related challenges for the sector and the increased challenges posed by climate change and fishing activities that undermine our overarching goals to protect our marine environment. I have spoken separately to the need to reinstate landing rights for UK-registered boats into Dunmore East to fill the gap that exits on the south-east coast, from Castletownbere to Howth. I echo Deputy Cullinane's invitation to the Minister. He seems to be popular; we all want a visit from him. Donegal to Waterford is about as far as one can travel, but there are fishing communities from Cheekpoint to Ceann Heilbhic, and the Minister can continue on to east County Cork and make a good day of it. We will all warmly welcome him and make his worth his while, with the blaas at the ready.

All these issues are strongly interlinked. We need healthy marine environments to maintain local coastal economies and safeguard against external challenges, and healthy marine environments depend on stronger measures to protect and regulate those very environments. On the subject of protecting our marine environment, it will come as no surprise if I raise the important issue of marine protected areas, MPAs, and the Government's commitments to legislating for MPAs in Irish waters and to realising existing commitments for marine protection in the marine strategy framework directive. MPAs can and should play a vital role in rebuilding marine populations and habitats, which directly contribute to the resilience of marine populations and coastal communities to climate change. MPAs will also serve as crucial sources of information in future years in regard to the impacts of climate change on marine environments and how marine ecosystems respond to our changing climate and warming and acidifying oceans. All in all, in achieving our objectives to expand MPAs, we will safeguard the very ecosystem on which fishers, coastal communities and the broader economy depend.

We will also fall into step with many of our European neighbours, who are making progress in the same direction. Through the wider European network of the Green Party and associated movements, colleagues in Brussels tell me of inspiring initiatives in countries such as France, Italy and Norway, where MPAs have been broadened to protect both smaller scale and artisanal fishers, as well as fish stocks and the marine ecosystem. In the Mediterranean region, a network of MPAs is piloting nine projects aimed at strengthening and empowering MPAs and the people working to sustain them. The projects include supporting small-scale fishing in MPAs, the conservation of mobile species and the development of sustainable fishing mechanisms for MPAs. This represents a great opportunity, particularly for our inshore fishing fleet, into the future.

We can take inspiration from these examples demonstrating that there is much to gain from establishing and expanding marine protected areas, but doing so will require more human capacity, research and skills, financial resources and, importantly, public and political support. That nine tenths of our territory is marine is often overlooked in our politics. We need to build our overall awareness of our marine environment and the role it plays in the economy as a whole. To this end, my Green Party colleagues and I look forward to engaging further on the ongoing process to prepare legislation for the MPAs, led by the Minister's colleague, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien.

On a related subject, I raise the issue of the EU fisheries control regulation, an essential tool to monitor and manage fish stocks throughout EU waters. Environmental and conservation groups have expressed concern about certain deficiencies in the control system allowing for the continuation of unregulated and possibly illegal fishing activities in both EU and Irish waters. It does not need to be said that without proper controls, regulation and oversight, our broader sustainability goals and those related to MPAs, which I highlighted earlier, will be directly undermined by malpractice throughout the sector. Conservation groups have strongly advocated for action such as safeguarding against the under-reporting of catches, the expansion of tracking and catch reporting to all vessels in the EU, improved seafood traceability and greater transparency at a national level of fishing control efforts. I imagine these concerns have come to the Minister's attention too and I urge him to engage with fishing and coastal communities, as well as environmental groups, as EU discussions on the fisheries control regulation continue.

A separate issue I raise relates to the welfare of fishers from non-European Economic Area, EEA, countries working on Irish vessels. A number of other Deputies and I have been contacted by the International Transport Workers Federation, ITF, about the vulnerability of non-EEA fishers working on Irish fishing vessels and the challenges they face. The ITF has raised a number of concerns surrounding the employment of non-EEA workers, ranging from their working conditions and safety to their employment rights. The atypical working scheme, under which non-EEA workers are eligible for employment on fishing vessels, provides some solution to ensuring appropriate working conditions but a number of problems persist. Many workers remain undocumented and thus highly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Even when they are correctly documented under the atypical working scheme, they still face exploitation in the form of major overwork, underpayment and hazardous working conditions.

Some fishers have been injured on the job, with no protection measures to support them while they are not working. Others have testified to circumstances where over-quota catches have been hidden from the authorities. As an island nation with a proud legacy of thriving coastal and fishing communities, it is important that we properly protect all workers in this sector. They are a vital part of the fishing community and work in extremely challenging circumstances to keep the industry going and maintain our fishing supplies.

I am conscious this issue falls across a number of Departments, not just the Minister's, and, therefore, more co-ordinated efforts will be needed to address both policy-related and more practical challenges facing these fishers. The Minister's Department has an important and pivotal role to play as the focal point for the entire fishing sector and for fishers from all levels of the industry in particular. I welcome the chance to have addressed the Minister in respect of these issues.

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