Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I had the opportunity earlier today to raise again with the Taoiseach the crisis in our fishing industry. What has caused this? If we look at our waters under the jurisdiction of the Common Fisheries Policy, 15% of the fish quota in these waters has been allocated to the Irish fishing fleet every year for years. The other 85% is given to the fishing fleets of other European member states. This is based on what is called relative stability and based on the fishing practices of the 1970s. This has been allowed to happen. The impact is devastating. I have been visiting peers and harbours along our coast as Sinn Féin's spokesperson on fisheries and the marine. I have spoken to fishers and their families along the coast. The despair is growing. The impact of the Brexit trade agreement has meant a further cut to the quota of 15%, which has an impact of €43 million per year. The fact we have not confronted the utter injustice in the Common Fisheries Policy leaves us with the loss of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of euro each year. What other European country would tolerate a 15% take for its own fleet? We speak about climate change. Whose boats are closest to those waters? I want to set the context of what I want to raise with the Minister on the Finance Bill. I want the Minister to consider the issue of tax relief for fishers and the issues of wear and tear, fuel costs, repairs and climate measures. Costs continue to be raised at every pier and harbour. Fishers are self-employed and they have no tax relief.

The Minister has made provision for the farming community and the film industry. I am not pitting industry against industry as these provisions are right and proper but the fishing industry is the most under the cosh in the State. It is the one that suffered most in the Brexit debacle. I raised this through a parliamentary question and the Minister spoke about considering it and tax expenditure guidelines. He said it was key. He said where there are demonstrable market failures, tax-based incentives should only be considered where they would be more efficient than a direct expenditure intervention. This is the industry that is the most under the cosh. These are the people who are struggling to stay in the water. They have been failed by the macro policy of the State. They feel they have been sacrificed for other priorities.

I ask the Minister to look at this area of the fishing community. I ask him to speak to his colleague the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, to see what he can do at the next opportunity to address this issue of tax reliefs to provide another bit of assistance to them. I have raised the wider issue with the Taoiseach and let him fight for that. Within the Minister's responsibility I ask him to deal with this.

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