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

I referred earlier to The Fishing Daily, Marine Timesand The Skipper. It is my job and that of the Minister to read those publications every time they come out to educate ourselves on the issues affecting fishing communities. If he had done that, he would not have made the assertion he made earlier that he has never heard of those publications criticising the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or the SFPA. That was an astonishing statement. I can tell the Minister that, from talking to fishermen up and down the coast, there is, sadly, a wall of distrust that has been established over a long period of time. The Minister's job is to try to break down that. This legislation is a disaster for that challenge. It undermines trust even further. It says that fishers are second-class citizens. The threshold for conviction is the balance of probabilities and not beyond a reasonable doubt. Fishers are second-class citizens. The Minister can talk about administrative or criminal law. The livelihoods of those fishers can be taken away by this legislation. That is serious.

I watched a documentary a number of years ago called "The Atlantic". It was screened in the audiovisual room in Leinster House and everybody was invited. It was a tremendously powerful documentary. Something that stayed in my mind from that documentary was the fisherman Jerry Early in Arranmore. He had been dragged into the courts. That was the reality for him. He was back on the boat and trying to eke out a livelihood fishing off Arranmore. There is a scene in the documentary where he is sitting on the boat and the interviewer in talking to him. He talks about a city of lights behind him - the super trawlers. We were going after the inshore fishermen and the island fishermen, treating them like criminals, while a city of lights, a super trawler, was hoovering up the sea behind them. We were telling those fishermen not to catch the odd salmon or herring, or whatever it might be here or there, while a super trawler was coming out and legally hoovering up fish with no oversight, CCTV or observers on board. They were landing massive catches. That is the context and the profound injustice involved. We are going after our fishermen while we hand more than 85% of the fish in our waters without a fight.

Bluefin tuna is the most lucrative fish in the sea. It is now in abundance in our waters thanks to good practices. The quota for the European fishing fleet increased by 78% in recent years. An additional quota was given to the fishing fleets of Europe. What did the Irish fishermen get of that? Not 1 kg. The Irish fishermen can catch bluefin tuna but they must release them again. They can catch them and look at them but they have to be thrown back into the water again. Fishermen from all other fleets in Europe can come into our waters and beyond. International fishermen can catch the most lucrative fish in the world. Imagine the difference bluefin tuna would make for our inshore fishermen, even if they were told to line catch them. There was no fight in that regard.

This is an environment in which there is growing anger. In 2005, we had 280 fishing vessels that were longer than 50 m. That is indisputable. When the latest decommissioning round is completed, we will be down to fewer than 100. Our fleet is one third of the size it was in 2005. Is it any wonder fishermen have lost faith in their own Department and the Government, and why they are infuriated by people harassing them, following them and chasing them? The Minister knows this. He has been around the piers and harbours. We forced our fishermen to take their fish out of iceboxes, weigh them and put them back into the boxes. The Minister knows that under the seafood regulations there is a crucial issue around the temperature of fish and the process of taking them from the sea, maintaining them at the right temperature and freshness, and selling them to market. That is an EU directive around seafood safety and yet all of that was undermined by another directive on the back of a poor job by the SFPA on auditing. All that was leaked.

The Minister accused me of personalising the issue and being nasty. I challenge him to disprove a single word I have said in my contribution.

Is it nasty to speak the truth? Is it unreasonable to tell the truth about what is happening to our fishing and coastal communities? I appeal to the Minister to listen to them. He is from a coastal community. He is not far from the sea in the middle of Inishowen. Nearby are Urris, Malin Head and Greencastle, with its good-sized harbour. There are decent piers in the area. The Minister knows these people. He knows who they are and that they are the salt of the earth. He knows how they feel. I am appealing to him for a change of direction. I am not questioning the Minister's character. We have known each other long enough. However, I cannot understand the direction he is taking here. I cannot understand how the senior officials in the Department, who have failed for so many years, have the Minister moving in a direction that is wrong. This legislation is wrong. This is not a personal attack on the Minister. I personally have good regard for him and we have known each other long enough. I genuinely and from my heart tell him that from speaking to fishermen around the coast, that is how they feel. Nothing I have said can be refuted. I ask the Minister to take it any way he wants but this is a genuine appeal to him, as an Inishowen man surrounded by water, to do what is right by the people we have known all our lives. That is all I am asking and nothing more.

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