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

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. We saw last week that the military exercise by the Russians off the south-west coast of Ireland was moved outside the exclusive economic zone, EEZ, only after the intervention of our fishermen with the Russians. We need a full debate on this issue in the Dáil on how, as with Brexit, our Government stood idly by while these fishermen's lives and livelihoods were in jeopardy. It is astonishing, to say the least, and has left the nation in hysterics, that the country's political system failed the fishermen and they had to go out there themselves and sort the issue out. Will the Taoiseach allow us to debate where the Government went wrong on this issue this week in the Dáil?

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