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

I will conclude on this because I only have four minutes left.

I want to talk about inshore and island fishermen and the crisis they are facing. I will lead with this and ask that the Minister look at the issue of Brexit. It is clear that the European Commission agreed a Brexit deal with the UK accepting zonal attachment rather than relative stability. In other words, the waters would benefit those who live closer to them. That is the basis to the Brexit agreement - zonal attachment. Will the Minister examine the approach of the Irish Government in terms of the entire value? Will he give an assessment of the entire value of all the fish in the Irish exclusive economic zone, which is within the 200-mile limit? I am not asking the Minister to respond to that now, but he might undertake to supply those of us in the Opposition with a full value of all the fish in the exclusive economic zone of Ireland. What is the full value? What do we get? He might then address the zonal attachment issue. I do not want him to respond now as I do not have enough time left.

I want to say this on the record. Representatives from the National Inshore Fishermen's Association appeared before the Oireachtas committee recently. If the Minister has not had a chance to do so, he should please look back at their presentation or at least read the transcript of it. It was harrowing. As he knows, there are almost 2,000 inshore fishermen across the State. They have a producer organisation, which is good news. We also have the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation, IIMRO. However, both of them are getting very limited support in terms of their producer organisation. They are really trying to stand up for their communities with very limited resources. Will the Minister look at that?

Will the Minister look at the issue of fuel subsidies? The fuel subsidy is nothing. He talks about the tie-up scheme. Inshore and islands could not avail of that. They had no financial support deal, and the cost of fuel is increasing again. He might address supports and financial supports for the producer organisations. The Minister knows about the collapse of the crab and shrimp markets. Can he provide financial supports for that? The Minister has spoken about piers and harbours. Investment in piers and harbours came from the Brexit adjustment reserve fund. European money, which is basically called redundancy money in the industry, was given to make up for the huge loss of income to our industry. That money is being invested in piers and harbours. I would argue that it should be central Exchequer capital funding. Certainly, a good proportion of it should be going towards that. The Government has spent tens of millions of this Brexit adjustment reserve fund money on piers and harbours. Why has it not given financial assistance directly on fuel, as requested, compensating for the collapse of crab and shrimp and the issue of supporting the producer organisations?

Finally, because the Minister will only have about one minute to respond to me, I will mention the area of aquaculture. The Minister will know that in a recent speech in this Chamber, I spoke about the impact of recent changes in aquaculture in terms of Brexit. There are new export requirements for the live bivalve mollusc. Costs, logistics, paperwork and bureaucracy have all increased. I ask the Minister to engage with the IFA's aquaculture committee on this issue because this is having a serious impact on its members. I ask him to pay attention to that issue, too.

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