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

We have had many exchanges with the Minister about this. He knows the history of it. When he was the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on agriculture, food and the marine, his colleague, Pat the Cope Gallagher, the then Fianna Fáil spokesperson on the marine and fisheries, moved an annulment of the statutory instrument from 2018 and for the first time in the history of the State, a statutory instrument was annulled. That is how strongly Pat the Cope Gallagher, former Leas-Cheann Comhairle of this House, felt about the issue.

Not only did he oppose the statutory instrument, he made it clear that fishermen supported the principle of penalty points but it had to be fair and balanced. He put forward a number of proposals at that time as a solution. If one looks at the amendments from the Sinn Féin and Rural Independent Group Deputies, they reflect what the Fianna Fáil fisheries spokesperson at that time believed in.

I will not read back to the Minister what he said in the Dáil but he was seriously concerned about the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and he felt there was a culture in that Department at that time which led to a mishandling of this whole affair. It should be remembered that fishermen had already won a number of court cases against previous Government decisions which found their rights were being infringed upon and this was not balanced and yet, the Minister has brought this legislation back pretty much verbatim.

The Minister has travelled around the coast. He has met fishermen online and in person all around the coast. He knows their views towards the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, which, unfortunately, has been a dysfunctional organisation and is now undertaking reform at last. However, the Minister knows there are protests within the organisation. It is dysfunctional and has not served its purpose properly around the State.

This dysfunctionality led to the withdrawal of our control plan, which was a disaster. That has recently been reversed, thanks to the huge effort of the fishermen in resisting this and standing up for their rights. The SFPA allowed a message to go out there that we were overfishing and involved in widespread illegality to the tune of tens of thousands of tonnes and hundreds of millions of euro. This was widely reported in the media because it was leaked. We do not know who did so, but somebody in either the SFPA or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine leaked information to media in Ireland that was hugely damaging to and deeply untrue about the industry. What happened next? On the back of all of that, the European Commission withdrew the control plan. That is the level of crisis that has created the lack of distrust between our fishermen and those who are supposed to work with them. People understand regulation is needed in this country. There needs to be oversight. We all accept that. Fishing has to be sustainable and one has to stick to whatever the science says. It would be reckless not to do so. To be clear, everybody agrees on that.

However, the reason we in Sinn Féin tabled these amendments, along with our colleagues in the Rural Independent Group, is that it is outrageous to set a threshold of conviction where somebody's livelihood can be taken away, which is the balance of probabilities in this legislation. It is on the balance of probabilities, rather than beyond reasonable doubt, which is the universally accepted threshold for conviction.

We have repeatedly appealed to the Minister to remove the balance of probabilities and make it beyond reasonable doubt. It is an entirely reasonable appeal. It would have been a gesture of goodwill from the Minister to those fisheries communities, whose trust in the likes of the SFPA and indeed the Department is on the floor and it gives me no pleasure to say that.

We have to rebuild those relationships. I appeal to the Department and the marine officials who will either tune into this debate tonight or read the transcript to start to rebuild those relationships. When the Minister was on this side of the House he said exactly the same. I will read back his script later if necessary. He said he was really concerned about the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and its relationship with fishing communities. My concern in few years since he said those words remains exactly the same. We need to rebuild trust and the relationship between the Department, the SFPA and fishing communities. Getting this legislation wrong is not the way to do that.

At that time, I spoke to the then Deputy, Pat The Cope Gallagher, who was the Leas-Cheann Comhairle at the time, the Fianna Fáil fishery spokesperson previous to that and a very fine Member of the Oireachtas for many years. I read his proposal to strengthen the legislation. He would feel just as strongly as we do now. For the life of me, I cannot understand why the Minister has not changed the language in this law to "beyond a reasonable doubt". Every single person has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the threshold, yet the legislation refers to the balance of probability. The Minister knows that is wrong and the then Deputy Pat The Cope Gallagher knew it was wrong when he had this statutory instrument annulled.

I appeal to the Minister tonight to get rid of this offensive language and lower threshold because every citizen has a right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. That is natural justice but that is not what is in this legislation. What that tells me is that the people in the Department who drafted this legislation and write the Minister's briefing notes still do not get the anger and blind fury. Anybody in a coastal community knows there is blind anger and fury in fishing communities about they way they are being treated and the facts that they are not listened to and had to sign up to the seafood task force report on the basis that that is just how it is and there are not enough fish out there. I will speak about all of that later. The Minister hails from a coastal community and knows this legislation is wrong.

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