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

I thank the Minister of State and appreciate that she is speaking on behalf of the Minister for the marine. The response has been drafted by Department of the marine officials on behalf of the Minister and does not capture the urgency. We do not need increased grant aid for onboard and inshore investments. We are beyond that. Somebody is drowning and we are talking about giving them swimming lessons. I am sorry to use the pun, but that is literally what is happening.

In the past, people could have fallen back on pollock to some extent but that is not available. That is what we have done to the inshore sector. Fisheries have not been given the options they traditionally had. They are traditional fisheries and they are being squeezed more and more to rely on shellfish. Eighteen months ago, brown crab was €4 a kilo and it is currently €1.60 or €1.70 a kilo. The price of lobster has halved. The same has happened with oysters and mussels. Of particular concern in the recent past was shrimp; it is now crab and lobster. They are disastrous numbers. There is not enough media focus on this, but one fisherman spoke in a media report recently about the fact you could not give fish away. We will see an industry die and that is an emergency. I do not get the sense that the Minister and Department are conveying to the European Commission the scale of the crisis.

There are global issues. People point to the fact we never really got beyond what happened during Covid or after Brexit. There are so many market disturbances, including the war on Ukraine and so on. I appreciate the Minister of State is not the line Minister, but I want her to convey my message to the Minister. I am sure the officials will watch the debate. This is a profound crisis and nothing in the response tells me that the Department gets how serious this is. As Opposition spokesperson, it is my job to speak to fishermen around the coast. I am telling everyone who wants to hear it that this is an unprecedented crisis and we need urgent intervention now.

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