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

First, I thank the Rural Independent Group for bringing forward this motion. It has been my honour and privilege to work alongside Deputy Collins, particularly over the last three years. We have relentlessly raised the plight of our fishing communities in this Chamber, in the committees and out there in the wider community. I look forward to working with Deputy Collins over the time ahead. He is very passionate about our fishing communities.

We produced a document a number of years ago. At the time I toured pretty much all the piers and harbours around the coast. As the Sinn Féin spokesperson, I continue to talk to fishermen every day of my life. I have appealed to the Minister again and again to listen to our fishing communities. Like me, he is from the Inishowen peninsula and is surrounded by piers and harbours. He is in the perfect position to be briefed and advised by them. From the Inishowen peninsula round the west of Donegal down to Killybegs and right round our coast, it is the Minister's responsibility to act on what they are telling us. What they are telling us is that they are staring out at the Irish exclusive economic zone, which stretches out for 200 miles in front of them. It is a huge resource and a potential creator of wealth and jobs for those fishing and coastal communities. However, due to the failures of our Government over the years in the Common Fisheries Policy, we have not seen the proper return of our own natural resource that is right in front of us. The Minister knows that from the community he is from in the Inishowen peninsula. That has been a profound failure.

I want to emphasise the very important comments that Deputy Collins made. None of us is buying into the idea of divide and conquer. I was given good advice from a fisherman in the west of Ireland when I started as the Sinn Féin spokesperson on fisheries and the marine. He advised me to be careful not to buy into the idea of big versus small fishermen and divide and conquer. He told me to fight for all of them and do what is right and fair by all of them, so I support the exclusion of larger boats from the six-mile limit. I support a fairer share of mackerel, herring, spurdog and, indeed, arguably exclusively bluefin tuna if we can ever get one bloody fish to take back, rather than having to release it again. I ask the Minister to think about it. Bluefin tuna is the one of most lucrative, if not the most lucrative, species of fish in the world today. It is now accepted by the Marine Institute and the Department that it is in abundance in our waters, yet Irish fishermen have to catch and release. They take tourists out, catch the fish, which is, by the way, feeding on our own fish, and release it. It is a predatory fish. It gets fattened up. All the countries of Europe and the world are catching these fish within our exclusive economic zone, and outside in international waters after they have been fattened here. We have not even got one fish. The allocation to the EU of bluefin tuna increased by something like 75% in recent years because the species is doing well again, but we can only catch them on a rod and release them. Imagine the extra wealth that could bring to inshore fishermen. There is over-reliance on crab, lobster and other shellfish. Having to rely on them is not going to be a future for our inshore fishermen. The Minister knows that and has been told that.

I want to welcome some good news. I will be fair with these points. The spurdog issue was a crucial one. Everywhere I went, particularly in meeting the inshore fleet on the smaller piers right down the west of Ireland and round into the south east, mention was made of getting access to spurdog. It is good and welcome news that that quota has been secured. I ask for more of that. I want to welcome the fact that the National Inshore Fisherman's Association, NIFA, is now a producer organisation. That is welcome, but I am going to throw a challenge back to the Minister. It is really important that we include the islands in this motion. We must stand up for the fishermen of the islands. We must take the island and inshore fishermen all together. As the Minister knows, the island fishermen and the inshore fishermen now have producer organisations. Now that they both have producer organisations, it is critical that they have a place at the table because mackerel and herring quota are public quota and they need to have a fair share. Killybegs has built up a pelagic industry through hard work over many years. We have to fight for the fair share of pelagic fish. The Minister is aware of the issue with blue whiting and I believe he has been working with the industry on that.

I am very critical of the failure of the Government over decades now. The words used by Deputy Nolan are very strong ones, but I must say that if we speak to fishermen, that is how they feel and those are the words they use. I am sorry to say it, but those are the words they use about the Department. They are really angry. They call it the "Department Against the Marine". The Minister is from a fishing community in Inishowen. I believe that some of the things he has done recently are very welcome, but we have to do more. The Minister has people in his party and from his party in the recent past in Donegal who are passionate about the fishing industry, who would be brilliant people to advise him. The Minister should listen to them. Perhaps he is starting to listen to them because there is some positive stuff happening here. As long as the Minister takes positive actions and fights for fishermen, he will have my support and the support of the Deputies present. However, if we continue to see a Department that is against the marine, that fails people in the way that it has, then we will stand up and challenge the Government. We will repeat the language that we hear in our communities. It is our job to listen to what is happening out there and to hold Government to account and to ask it to do what is right.

The final issue that I want to touch on is that of fuel. The Government failed to provide financial support to the fishing industry that was severely impacted by the fuel crisis. The Minister said that the industry had the tie up scheme. That was totally wrong, because the scheme was about providing support for the loss of quota as a result of Brexit, a totally separate issue. The industry was getting supports for the loss of quota. The inshore fleet had no tie up scheme. It got no financial supports whatsoever throughout this period of huge challenge. As we outlined in our alternative budget, I support the provision of a financial allocation, particularly from the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, EMFAF. That is European money that is available. I understand that as we speak, there is €5 million sitting there to be allocated. I appeal to the Minister again to support the proposition, as outlined, for the allocation of €12 million from a range of different sources, including European funding, directly to the industry. The inshore industry in particular got no supports, but the overall industry needs supports too.

The Minister started off his speech by talking about what surrounds him and the piers and how they have influenced him. I am asking him, in his final period in government, to continue with some of the welcome measures announced in recent days, to stand up for inshore fishermen and all fishermen, and to get what is fair for our country in the EU.

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