Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

I wish the Minister of State the best of luck because, as I have always said, our fishing industry should be one of our greatest amenities and benefits to the State. I want to paint a picture of east Cork, where I am from, including Youghal, Goleen, Ballycotton, Cobh and the small ports in between of East Ferry, Whitegate and Aghada. I was struck by a piece on youghalonline.com in November 2024 which stated, referring to Youghal's lost fishing industry:

Youghal, once a bustling fishing port, has seen its industry dwindle to almost nothing. The once-bustling quayside, where fishermen unloaded their catch of salmon from the Blackwater River, is now a quiet reminder of a bygone era. Many of the pubs that were once the heart of the fishing community have also closed their doors. It seems that the fishermen themselves have become the endangered species.

I congratulate Deputies Mac Lochlainn, McGuinness and others on the survey. It is stark and unsurprising. The survey quotes one person who said they had been fishing for 30 years and had never seen it so bad, and went on to say that fishermen are not going to survive if things stay the same and that Irish fishermen are being treated very badly. Another person said they have been fishing since they were 15 years of age and are now 50 years old and have never seen the industry in such a bad shape in all sectors. They commented that there is no political will to seriously help the industry, and sad to say, they will not be in it for much longer the way it is heading because it is hard pay the bills now with poor quotas.

I have listened to other speakers.

As a young fellow, when I was 16, I worked in the fish plants. I remember we used to process our own fish here. This could be an industry worth billions, with the crossover between aquaculture, the landing of oysters, crushing oyster shells and mixing them in with hen feed to produce more calcium to benefit the eggshells, the by-products of this and the waste products that go into cat food and animal food. We are not processing.

It sickens me when I go to the likes of Ballycotton and I see a container lorry. The trawler comes in and offloads the boxes straight onto the forklift and they go into the back of the refrigerated truck and they are gone. It is ridiculous and I appeal to the Minister of State to work with everybody on this. This is one of the greatest assets we have in this country. What is happening here, on an island surrounded by water, is frightening. There is also the tourism aspect. Sprats were mentioned. I know of a man who has lost his business of whale watching and dolphin watching because the sprats are not coming and it is having a knock-on effect. As I have said, please let us all work together on this. It should be a win-win situation for everybody and in particular the families.

See this speech in context