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

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 12, line 4, to delete “30 working days” and substitute “60 working days”.

This is a fair amendment. You must look at the type of work a fisher does. If something as huge as penalty points is hoisted upon his or her back then he or she will need time. They will need time to challenge what is probably an unfair conviction being put on them. It is now left to a fisherman to fight an uphill battle, especially as the Minister did not accept the previous amendment. This amendment will increase the period of time to 60 days to allow a submission in writing to be made to the panel, from the date of notification from the SFPA. That is not an unreasonable ask. It is just 30 days more than the Minister is giving in the first place. These fishermen are out on the water. Many of them are working very hard. They have not the time to come in and fight a case. Fighting a case is a new penalty foisted upon them. Anybody who knows anything about court processes knows the person must be there themselves and must prepare his or her case. A case as big as this is an extremely serious situation for a fisherman. We saw last week the situation with the Russians and whatever. The livelihoods of the fishermen are seriously at risk. They have been for quite some time because both this Government and the previous one have taken their eye completely off the ball in relation to protecting the income of fishermen. Thus, they are forced out on the water at any time they have an opportunity to catch the little bit allowed by their quota. They might well have to go out for 30 consecutive days. Then they will not have a chance to come back in and fight a case, which could be a very unfair case. It looks like they are guilty if they are caught. They are guilty if they are not guilty and they are guilty if they are guilty, so they have not a hope of winning. At the same time, they are entitled to get some little bit of a chance.

I mentioned the situation with the Russians. When nobody helped them last week Irish fishermen went out there. They came up here. They came in off the water, went to the Russian embassy and spoke to the ambassador there. They were able to turn it around when the Minister, or the Minister for Foreign Affairs or the Taoiseach could not. The Taoiseach was taking the praise for it a little this week all right but it is a little too late because the whole country was falling around laughing at the way the Government failed the Irish fishermen. However, that is just a continuation of failures by successive Ministers and Governments to protect the Irish fishermen. They threw them out. They threw them out into the water. In this situation they took the law into their own hands. The sad thing is now they tell me the biggest mistake made was them not being allowed negotiate out in Europe during the Brexit negotiations because they would have come home with a result. We came home with a zero result. It is a sad reflection of what is going on there that the fishermen themselves have to fight every inch of the way to succeed. That is the sad situation they find themselves in.

I speak to them daily and they are under severe pressure. If the Minister continues with the 30 working days he is going to put more pressure on them instead of working with and co-operating with them. I cannot for the life of me understand why there is such a misunderstanding or dislike in the Department's thinking over the last 20 years to make it so anti-fishing. Maybe people say it has been over the past 30 years. Fishing is one of the greatest industries we could have in this country. It could be something we could stand up and be proud of, the same as we were so proud of our agriculture. The sad thing is the Government will wipe that out too if it keeps going the way it is.

This is a simple request. The Minister should substitute the 30 working days with 60 and give the fisherman every chance he has to come home and fight his case. It may be an unfair case he must fight in the first place but I cannot stop that process, by the look of it, given the way the Minister is going. In fairness, I wish the Minister was back on this side of the House like he was before. If he were we would have a different story tonight from him. We do not have that, however. We have a situation where the fishermen are going to be sold out one way or the other if the Government can have its way. They have had a disastrous 12 months going from one crisis to another. There was the weighing crisis, Brexit, penalty points and decommissioning. Lord God, one thing is just being piled on top of the other. Is there any good news here? Is the Minister going to get up tonight and say this penalty points system is going to go ahead? Are Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - we can forget about the Greens as they will always do these things anyhow - going to railroad this through one way or the other? Is there any hope the Minister will stand up tonight and say he has secured quota for the fishermen so we can turn things around a small bit and make them think they may survive in what is a crisis situation they face at this time? I ask that the Minister at least change his mind on the 30 working days and at least show some bit of respect. This amendment is about giving them respect and a stronger chance to defend themselves when they are probably in the right and deserve the right to defend themselves. They cannot do that in the 30-day period. That is what they have told me and I am relaying the message to the Minister on behalf of the fishermen of this country. Please stand up for them. Fianna Fáil stood up for them at one time. Now it is turning its back on them because they are being sacrificed for some other sweet deal somewhere else along the line. That is what has been going on here for years. Let none of us be fooled here in any way.

I must touch on the SFPA while I am here. There is a shocking relationship between the fishermen and the SFPA. It should never be like that. It should be a working relationship. That is something the Minister will have to work hard on going forward.

Is the SFPA now going to be whipping boys with penalty points? They have been whipping boys against the ordinary fishermen for the past 30 years aided and abetted by successive governments. It is now time to change, to turn out and fight for those fishermen and their rights, whether it is in this country or in Europe. The Minister is at the helm to do that but he has failed to do it so far.

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