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

I agree with the remarks of Deputy Mattie McGrath regarding the Government attacking Irish neutrality. It is obvious what is going on.

There are many issues that need to be raised at European level, such as why each member state has sat back while energy bills have spiralled out of control or how the price of a barrel of oil is spiralling downwards yet at the same time it has never been as high in Ireland as it is now. It was €2.05 a litre at the pumps in west Cork last weekend. The Government takes 50% of that and throws it around to its little pet projects.

In the short time I have, I will concentrate on the fishing industry as, when I attended the AGM of the Irish South and West Fish Producer's Organisation last Saturday week in Bantry, I was asked to raise a number of questions. There is no doubt that the fishing industry is the industry that has been most abandoned by the State, not only years ago, but when this Government bought into a bad Brexit deal that almost wiped out the industry. The only deal the Minister can speak about is decommissioning and tie-up schemes. That is a shameful return for what could be one of the biggest employment industries in the country. What the industry and I cannot understand is the current cost of fuel for boat users. A fuel relief scheme is now in play in France and Spain for fishermen there and providing relief to hard-pressed fishermen, but there is not a cent from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to fishermen in Ireland. This is a further attempt to wipe out more Irish fishermen from our waters. When will Fianna Fáil learn how to treat Irish fishermen the same as their fellow fishermen in other EU countries are treated? They do not want to be treated better. All they ask for is equal treatment with their fellow Europeans. That goes for quotas also. There has been a lot of huffing and puffing but no delivery from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue. All he ever mentions is decommissioning and tie-up schemes. This is a shambles of a Government and that is obvious from the way it carries on with fishermen. Its candidates should be run from every fisherman's door when the next election comes in. That is certainly what will happen down in west Cork.

See this speech in context