Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will conclude that introductory remark by saying that I have the utmost respect for my colleague, Deputy Mattie McGrath. We share a corridor on which we are neighbours but I take exception to seeing personal stuff being thrown into the Chamber. It is below where we need to be in terms of the quality of debate on a particularly important matter.

This is an important Bill that provides for a number of amendments to the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Act, which dates back to 2006. It legislates for a points system for Irish masters of sea-fishing boats. I understand that we are the only country that does not have that system yet. It has been misrepresented over the past few days as being some kind of punitive system equated at times, perhaps, to what happens when a person commits an offence when driving a car.

This is quite a different system and needs to be seen for what it is. What I really want to say is that for all the good this Bill does and which we should all support, it is important to have a more broadened debate about the fishing industry. It is an industry in County Clare and an employer in parts of our county, such as Doonbeg and along the coast. It is, of course, much bigger in the Minister's constituency and even bigger again, when one goes down along the coast towards Castletownbere and some of those harbours in County Cork. What I have been hearing time and time again and what I saw first hand only a few months ago when I had an hour or so free time, boarded trawlers docked outside the convention centre in protest and met trawlermen from Clare, Cork, Kerry, Donegal, Mayo and along the western seaboard, was that one after one they told me how difficult it is for them to survive.

I cannot remember the name of the app they asked me to follow but it is similar to flight radar. There is a phone app by which one can cast an eye over the Irish Sea or the Atlantic and see what vessels are at sea. They asked me to monitor it over one or two weeks and I did. What I could see off our coast were fleets of Spanish vessels time and time again. I am not an expert on the jurisdiction of waters, but I was also told by some people working in Shannon Airport that there was an offshore Spanish hospital ship out in the Atlantic at one point. Given there were so many trawlers from the Spanish fleet out there, they had a hospital ship out at sea to service that large crew of people on board trawlers.

We need to look at the regulatory regime under which we fall. We are in a large European bloc. It seems illogical at times that our fishing industry is struggling when Spanish and other Mediterranean fishing industries seem to be booming. I support this legislation, but there is a need for a wider dialogue on supporting our fisheries. It is close to the heart of the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. Despite what some have tried to insinuate here today, he has at all times not hidden from the fishing industry or any other industry that his Department represents. He is engaging with them and there needs to be more and deeper engagement to support him.

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