Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It says enough about what is being proposed in the Bill that the Green Party is stating that it is quite happy with it. That should be enough about it and make what is before us totally abhorrent to the Minister. How he or anyone else in the governing parties can support this is beyond belief.

We are all here to do our best for the different sectors we represent. I cannot for the life of me understand how anybody could agree with what is before us today because it is hurting our fishermen. That is a fact. Can the Minister make a case, on the record of the Dáil, as to why this is good for our fishermen and the people I represent, regardless of whether they live on the coast of Kerry, in the west of Ireland or where he is from? I am absolutely shocked to think that of all the people in the world, the Minister could actually support this. I will listen very carefully to any argument by the Minister or anyone else in the Green Party, for example, to the effect that this is good for fishermen. Our fishermen have been downtrodden for many years and I cannot understand why. They are part of our heritage and culture. They are part of what we want to keep going and all they want to do is survive, whether they are fishing on a full-time or part-time basis.

Last weekend I met with groups of fishermen who told me about the way they are hurting so bad. These are people who have small operations. Some are even just individuals on their own going out fishing. They say that it is getting more and more difficult all the time. I cannot understand why the Minister or anybody else would want to impose something that is actually crazy. We can spend the whole day debating the intricacies of what is being proposed, whereby we could have a situation where penalty points would be applied and still stand even though they would be deemed to have been applied in the wrong in the first instance. Why do we have to treat these people like their criminals? It does not make sense. We can have fishermen coming in from other countries and what they will do is fine. Again, I-----

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