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

I suppose the reason many of the Deputies are missing is because the debate is about fishing. It is the fishermen of Ireland who will be affected by the decisions the Government is going to make today. I heard what Deputy Leddin had to say and I am disappointed that he does not fully realise the suffering fishermen are experiencing. Stocks are falling throughout the world because we are giving away our quota continuously. The Deputy is happy to stand idly by and accept that by praising this Bill. It will be an astonishingly bad deal for Irish fishers. The Bill aims to criminalise the entire fisheries sector and create an own equal and deeply unfair legal system for fishermen and fisherwomen. On that basis alone, I am completely opposed to it.

There has been an extensive consultation with the Department's legal services division, the Office of the Attorney General and external counsel on this issue to devise a system which is compatible with our legal system and existing legislation. However, there has been a completely inappropriate lack of meaningful consultation with Irish fishers. In scrutinising the general scheme of the Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, the joint committee held public meetings with Department officials and engaged with representatives of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and met with and received written submissions from fish producer organisations. The joint committee concluded pre-legislative scrutiny and submitted its findings and concerns in a report by means of a letter dated 21 June 2021, in which the Chair wrote the following.

The Joint Committee expresses its concern at the standard of proof to be used by the determination panel and the appeals officer. The balance of probabilities is to be used as a threshold for applying penalty points rather than culpability beyond a reasonable doubt. Furthermore, the Joint Committee is concerned that penalty points applied under this legislation would not be deleted even if a master is found innocent of the alleged breaches in a court of law. These issues may negatively impact the perceived fairness of the penalty points system. The Joint Committee calls on you to re-examine the standard of proof to be used in the application of penalty points and consider a means by which penalty points may be deleted if a master is found innocent of the alleged offences for which they were applied.

Again, this is an astonishing situation. Good God it was mentioned here already yesterday. If a Deputy was to get penalty points for driving a car yet he or she was actually inside here in the Dáil at the time, and it was found out that a mistake was made by the authorities, the penalty points that had been applied to the licence would be immediately withdrawn, an apology given and we would move on. In this situation, however, if a person is caught then he or she is done and if a person is innocent he she is also done. You cannot win: it is a no-win situation.

A significant issue that has been highlighted in meetings with the fish producers organisations and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, is the revocation of weighing after transport. There is an urgent need for the SFPA to submit a revised control plan, one which reinstates in-factory weighing across the State, which is a level of oversight by the SFPA and the National Standards Authority of Ireland, NSAI, that is considered to be unmatched in the EU. Any inconsistency that may arise between the application of penalty points to EU and non-EU vessels must be addressed. Such an inconsistency could lead to Irish vessels facing a greater regulatory burden than the UK-registered vessels fishing in Irish waters.

The new system introducing penalty points for masters of fishing vessels is unfair and unbalanced with nonsensical elements, according to the Irish Fish Producers Organisation, IFPO. The Oireachtas committee was told last May that the EU ruling that catches must be weighed at landing rather than at factories is an absolute disaster and totally unworkable. The European Commission has said that operators did not have the weighing systems fit for purpose. In 2018 hauliers had identified manipulation of weighing systems and said the State had not taken appropriate action to address this. The move brought an immediate end to the derogation from the obligation to weigh catches at landing. The Irish Fish Producers Organisation told the committee that it does not oppose the introduction of a points system to punish serious fishing infringes but it does argue that the Bill repeats the mistakes of earlier legislation introduced by the previous Government. The IFPO has said that the only the only grounds for appeal to the High Court are on a point of law, which it says is being introduced to restrict the rights of appeal of fishers who fall foul of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority. The IFPO told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine that it is nonsensical that penalty points will be retained by the master even if he or she is acquitted, and that the standard of balance of probability rather than reasonable doubt could potentially destroy livelihood. Anger in the industry is reflected across several other submissions from the fishery sector lobby groups. There are submissions from the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation, which argues that the penalty points system could remove an individual's income without that person having recourse to the courts. Potentially, we could have the farcical situation whereby the High Court rules a person as innocent but the penalty points remain on the licence.

That is the whole situation here from start to finish. This is the argument I put to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. The Minister can see, as with the debates on fishing over past number of years, the number of speakers who have failed to turn up here today to speak on behalf of the fishers in this country. It is deflating to be a fisher to look in on this and to see what is going on here. This debate is flying through the Dáil because many of Deputies have failed to show their faces and fight for their fishers. The penalty points system is making criminals of skippers and even if they are innocent they are still deemed to be guilty. The issue of the weighing crisis at the piers is an absolute disaster, made by the SFPA, with massive losses to the pelagic fleet. The stinking rotten Brexit deal that was done last Christmas and signed up to by this Government is an absolute disgrace. The Green Party is the tail that is wagging this Government. I put it to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, that he needs to be stronger, that he needs to stand up for these people and understand their livelihoods. The Minister was down in Castletownbere with the Fianna Fáil road show recently but he did not tell any other Oireachtas Members from that area that he was coming. It was a nice secret to go around and pat the backs of the people he has ruined. He has ruined their livelihoods. These people are contacting me and they want out. This is not a way for fishers who want to survive and make a livelihood, which is all they ever wanted all their lives. To add insult to injury the Minister had said in a press release that it was a brilliant meeting. Unfortunately it was sent out the day before he came down. This tells us the disrespect the Minister has. Not only did he fail to notify the Oireachtas Members from West Cork he also disrespected the fishers by putting out a statement on the wrong day that stated he had a very successful discussion with them when he had not discussed anything at all and had not yet even arrived. That is the situation that fishers find themselves in. They get no respect from start to finish.

This has been going on with the current Minister and his predecessors. One after another they have failed to protect the fishers. The Government Deputies are coming in here to back this because the Green Party and the Minister say that it must be done. It is time for someone in Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael to stand up for the people who elected them. That is what they must do. This is a raw deal. It has been one raw deal down on top of the other raw deal, but there is a way out. When the British had to bring in a penalty points system in their time they certainly had to hold negotiations. They were proper negotiations with their fishers, when they were in the EU, with regard to a penalty points system. We did no negotiation. We are asking how high do they want us to jump so we can comply with the rules. Will we ask them how much more of a quota we will need to lose again next year so we can comply with the rules? I called for a senior Ministry within Government for the negotiations for the marine sector and he failed miserably to get that senior Ministry. It has cost us dearly. This is a great industry we have on our doorstep.

We have a task force in place at the moment. I attended the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation AGM on Saturday and they told me that they put many amendments forward to try to put a better system in place. They were are concerned that this task force was not allowed to take on board their amendments. What is going on out there? What is the point of a task force if nobody can have an input to try to see if they can fight for the survival of their fellow fishers? This situation also rolls on down with regard to the inshore fishermen. They certainly are feeling the pinch as well. Many of them feel they are being neglected. We have a weighing crisis at the piers that is an absolute disaster. We have SFPA that seems to protect everybody else but the Irish fishers. We now have this issue of penalty points so we can drag in our innocent fishers who work hard out there, and who might not be guilty of an infringement. A few months ago, however, when there was a ramming incident of a Castletownbere trawler by a Spanish trawler that was fishing illegally in Irish waters nobody could go out to help them. They were left there. It tells us what side of the world we are living in and tells us on what side is the Government.

The Green Party's Deputy Leddin comes in here and is delighted about it. The Deputy has not read about it and he does not understand how hard it has been for the Irish fishers. The Deputy talks about quotas. Ireland is not throwing away its quotas, they are being given to the foreign fleets who are robbing the fish out of our waters. We have allowed it continuously. I and each and every Deputy from Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and the Green Party need to stand up here today to oppose this Bill from start to finish.

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