Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Bill seeks to provide the legislative framework for a new streamlined development consent process for activities in the maritime area, including offshore renewable energy. The Bill also provides for the establishment of a new agency, the maritime area regulatory authority, to undertake certain consenting and enforcement functions in the new regime. Types of projects or activities that would fall under the new MAC system under the marine planning and development management Bill include offshore renewable energy and gas storage, telecommunications cables, ports, harbours, marine environment surveys and pollution, while also helping to address the threat of climate disruption.

It is critical that coastal communities and the fisheries sector are fully protected within the new process, while also ensuring tourism potential is not impacted. Much of the conversation regarding this plan emanating from the Government has revolved around the potential to scale up offshore wind energy in line with increased targets, aligned with a halving of carbon emissions by 2030. However, there has been little or no meaningful public consultation with local communities on the plans. It appears that much of the focus on maritime planning is on developing wind energy, while on the other hand targeting the effective wipeout of the entire fishing sector. Where is the sustainability in this approach? While I agree with wind energy at sea, in no way should it be allowed to impede the fishing sector. This sector was abandoned by successive Governments before and during Brexit and has since been abandoned by the Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government, which happily sat idly by as €43 million was wiped off fishermen's income in the blink of an eye. The hope for the Government is that it can now stagger along until the decommissioning of the Irish fishing fleet happens. It is a case of getting rid of it. Ireland and Europe worked hand in hand together to wipe out the fishing industry.

The Bill must demonstrate how fishermen and rural coastlines and islands will benefit from it. Areas of Irish water will be set aside for construction. If that is the case with this proposal, jobs will be created in all sectors at sea, both long term and short term. Can we guarantee that fishermen who are now out of work can get some of these jobs? Such issues must be examined in order that we can bring hard-pressed fishermen totally on board. Have discussions taken place with fishing groups throughout the country and what has been the outcome, as they are masters of the sea and the voice that must be listened to?

The discussions must be honest, unlike the recent visit to west Cork of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue. He mistakenly sent a press release about the successful visit he had with fishermen in west Cork the day before he arrived, which meant this political stunt backfired and showed what little regard he had for the fishing groups and fishermen of west Cork. There is a degree of mistrust in rural, island and coastal communities and that must be examined more deeply by the Minister. If he wants to get this across the line, which is of great importance, he must do so with their consent and by working with them. When he visits constituencies such as Cork South-West, he might contact all the elected representatives so that we can work with him rather than looking at party members from elsewhere on the political spectrum. It will come back to us, the Deputies in these areas, and if we are being overlooked and are not part of the process, we will make our own mind up from there.

If the Bill is to be managed properly, we must have honest and straight discussion on the benefits and pitfalls and explain how we soften the pitfalls to the benefit of rural communities. The loss of fishing grounds must be avoided at all costs. I recently met with the successful fish farm groups in Castletownbere. I put to them the upset of inshore fishermen when large fish farms are given licences taking up large areas of the sea. That is a huge concern. We are facing something similar but of a different nature in the bigger seas and there is concern about it. In fairness, some of the people who have fish farms are genuine. They are local and they are providing local employment but there is a concern about them. There is a land-based alternative in some countries and that must be examined here as an option.

I was listening to the fish farmers and I fully agree with them. The biggest blockages they have in this country, and I hope the Minister of State does not come up against the same pitfalls, is the licences being applied, for example, for a fish farm. I am not saying that a fish farm should or should not get that licence, but it takes ten years before it is notified. Imagine someone applies for planning permission for a house or anything else and has to wait ten years for a response as to whether they get it or not. It is an astonishing situation. I know it is not under the Minister of State's Department but it is under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and it has to be answerable to these applicants, whether their application is genuine or not, and that is another area the maritime Bill should be looking at because we should be looking at all issues of the sea.

What I am trying to say is that there is engagement and discussion but I wish that discussion had gone on before Brexit last year. No matter how I mentioned it in the Dáil, the Taoiseach was away with the fairies and he did not understand what I was talking about. It was obvious the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine did not understand it. They led blindly into an agreement out in Europe that decimated Irish fishermen and ruined their incomes and livelihoods. There was no answer bar dragging themselves into decommissioning, hoping that will get things across the line, get rid of this and then move on.

I also note that our harbours will be involved in this Maritime Area Planning Bill. Harbours and piers need to be looked at seriously. There are so many in west Cork that need upgrading and that is probably the case throughout the country because they are in a shocking state of disrepair. I can name many, and one is the pier at Union Hall. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine was down recently to do the Fianna Fáil road trip, for all the good it was to the fishermen of west Cork, as the pier users in Union Hall got no announcement as to when that pier will be expanded or works done on it.

Floating terminals were mentioned. I cannot understand for the life of me why this cannot be considered in a more serious light. I am certainly not an expert on floating terminals but I did put forward a very genuine proposal to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, last year in a spirit of openness and dialogue. To be fair, he rang the individual in question in west Cork, a person who had huge experience across the world and wanted to invest some money in Ireland. We have a situation where we have faced many amber alerts in the last 12 months. We are on the verge of a blackout in Ireland and, if the Minister of State does not mind me saying it, a bit like with the Brexit negotiations, the Government is asleep at the wheel. We have to look at other ways. This plan is down the road. I know the Minister is trying to speed it up and I respect some parts of that, but it is still not going to be a solution to the situation we are in right now. The floating terminal was a great solution by a west Cork company that was willing to invest and willing to do this off Cork Harbour. Please tell me where I am going wrong or where this guy is going wrong because it is happening all over Europe. It seemed to be a green solution and a great solution, but not in Ireland. It cannot happen off Cork because we are Irish. Is that it? I went into great detail with the Minister. I raised it on Leaders’ Questions at some stage and had three minutes with our leaders to try to get that point across because I had taken advice and listened.

While we need to discuss the Maritime Area Planning Bill, as I said, I wish the Government gave as much time to other maritime areas. I am supportive of much of the Bill but if rural communities, inshore fishermen and pelagic fishermen are not properly consulted, I will be led by their call as they are the only people I am answerable to inside in the Dáil - the people of Castletownbere, Kilcrohane, Mizen Head and all the way out along the coastline to Kinsale, by Union Hall and Glandore. They are the people who put me here and the people I represent. If the Minister of State is in west Cork, he might decide there is only a certain sector that he wants to speak to but I want everybody spoken to. I want everybody on board. I want to make sure that everybody's livelihoods are protected, the livelihoods that were lost by complete and utter neglect. This is an opportunity to turn it around. There may be advantages and there will obviously be snags and disadvantages that we will have to iron out. I am supportive of this if they are ironed out and if there is complete consultation. I will be meeting with fishing groups over the weekend and discussing this with them. I will be meeting farming groups and I have just texted in regard to an IFA meeting over the weekend. I want to talk to them because they represent rural communities and I want their vision and their view on this. In fairness, we are in the House talking about it, which is positive and something I welcome. Hopefully, we will keep along that line of discussion and go from there.

See this speech in context