Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his comments. This has been a bizarre debate. This is the second amendment. During the debate on the first amendment, pretty much all the Opposition speakers spent their time telling me that I changed my opinion when I moved from one side of the House to the other. They told me that now I am on the Government side of the House I am peddling a different set of policies. I clearly laid out that was not the case. I laid out the logic in what I am doing and what I have brought forward. I set that out clearly. We are now on amendment No. 2 and the Opposition Deputies are opposing something they proposed when a debate on these matters was held most recently. They are accusing me of not having come forward and put in place the amendments they supported when Fianna Fáil proposed them when we were on the Opposition benches. One of the amendments we sought to adopt was the increase the period to 30 days.

That was one of the things all of the Deputies supported the last time around. It is one of the things I supported. It is one of the things I put in place in the licenceholder's legislation and in this legislation, which is for what the Deputies all advocated. It was one of their key amendments. Now, they have spent the second amendment debate arguing against the very thing they were proposing then, even though it is already contained in this Bill. It is bizarre really from that point of view.

I will go back over some of the arguments and points that were made. Deputy Michael Collins first of all indicated that I was anti-fishing and that people were rolling around laughing at the negotiations for Brexit. Again, Deputy Collins has followed this debate. He should have seen my form and track record so far with regard to fisheries. I was in Rossaveal yesterday. I visited it as part of my tour of the piers last October and met with the fishers. It is a tremendous natural asset. It is a port that has not done as well as it should have in recent years. I went back there yesterday and announced a €25 million investment for a deepwater harbour.

Deputy Mac Lochlainn mentioned Urris and Greencastle in our own backyard. Since I became Minister, €200,000 has been invested in a new pier for Urris. The Greencastle breakwater project was a €12 million investment in something both of us have been pushing for ten years and has now been delivered. The fisheries school in Greencastle was allocated €1 million for a safety water pool. A support scheme was announced last week for inshore fishers. If I am right, it is the first time ever there has been a scheme to support our inshore fishers with up to €4,000 for each inshore fisher. Right throughout my time in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I have backed fishers to the hilt in every way I could through a historically difficult time while dealing with the challenge of Brexit

At the end of those contributions, Deputy O'Donoghue indicated that I had sold out 85% of our fleet. As Deputy O'Donoghue will know, unfortunately, 15% of our quota was impacted by the Brexit deal and agreement. We fought tooth and nail to protect the industry in very difficult negotiations. The Deputy will know how our good friend, Mr. Boris Johnson, put fisheries up there in lights as one of his targets and how one third of our fish is caught in British waters. That was a challenge we were up against. We fought tooth and nail to do the very best we could for the sector throughout that. Since that, we put together the task force to bring together all the voices in the sector to plot the way forward and then backed their proposals by putting in place those schemes. That is the track record of this Government. That is what this Government is doing to support and back our fishermen to ensure there are as many sustainable livelihoods as possible in the years ahead and, indeed, that our fishing resources are sustainable in a way that means fisheries will be here for many years to come and fishery stocks will be healthy.

The reason we are sticking with the amendment is that, again, it is 30 days, which all the Deputies themselves proposed. It was one of the key amendments, which is now in here and which they are all arguing against without it actually ever moving to Government. They just changed their position in opposition. I say to them to back their own amendment, stay consistent, which is the same thing they have been asking me to do, and back the proposals I have in the legislation, that is, the 30 days they initially sought to have in there and that actually is in there.

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