Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As a Donegal man himself, I am sure the Minister fully appreciates the importance of the sea to this island nation, but most importantly to coastal and fishing communities around the country. I am pretty sure he also appreciates how dangerous it can be on the high seas, especially in the north Atlantic, and how many tragedies, unfortunately, have befallen the fishing communities in recent years. Whether we are crewing a cruise ship, pleasure craft, a container ship, car ferry or fishing vessel, it is a very hazardous occupation. If any Irish mariner is putting out to sea, he or she must have confidence that the State has the appropriate structures and services in place to help when things go wrong.

It is on that basis that I wish to use my time to address some issues concerning the Naval Service with the Minister. I know, strictly speaking, it is outside his brief, but the effect of the issues come within his brief from a fisheries point of view. I hope he can raise these matters with his Cabinet colleagues. I wish to focus on four issues in particular. The first is the search and rescue capability of this country. It has been dramatically depleted in the past five years in particular. We should have nine naval ships at sea, but we only have seven. The reason two are at anchor in the port in Cork is that we do not have the sailors to man them. It is an extraordinary situation to be in that we have the ships, but we do not have the crew. We have the hard part, but we do not have the soft part. As a result, the search and rescue capability of this country is significantly diminished, in particular in the first crucial hour when there is a tragedy at sea when everything hangs in the balance, and that prevents the Naval Service from getting to trawlers in trouble at the appropriate time.

The second point I wish to raise relates to the search and recovery capability. I refer to the wonderful people in the Naval Service dive team. When trawlers, unfortunately, go down and become submerged in a tragedy, these are the people who swim as far as 40 m below the surface and pull remains out of trawlers, bring them back up to the surface, hand them over to the grieving families ashore and give them some solace in the face of unspeakable tragedy. There should be 30 members of the Naval Service dive team but, unfortunately, only six remain. That has massive knock-on effects for the fishing community as well.

The third point I wish to raise concerns law and order. This is a massive issue. We are investing in the Garda Síochána to police the land mass. That is appropriate and it is exactly how we should be doing business but, unfortunately, we are reducing the investment in how we police our territorial waters. I am sure the Minister is well aware that there was an alleged attempted ramming of an Irish trawler only two weeks ago off the south coast. It is not just about fishing: it is about the importation and smuggling of drugs, fugitives, people, and weapons. There is a gap in our defences from the perspective of our territorial waters and it does affect the fishing community.

The fourth and final point I wish to raise specifically relates to fisheries protection. In particular, in light of Brexit, we now have a massive third country on our doorstep with an extensive sea border. We must be in a situation where we can prevent the night-time plundering of Irish fish stocks in Irish waters by EU and non-EU vessels that should not be here. We must invest in the Naval Service from an inspection and patrolling perspective.

I would very much appreciate it if the Minister could raise those matters with his Cabinet colleagues. The Naval Service is in crisis. It is a man-made problem and it is therefore within our gift to solve. Fishing and coastal communities deserve better than the status quofrom a safety and security point of view.

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