Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this vital topic. I also acknowledge Deputy Mac Lochlainn for his continued efforts to push for this and the Minister of State's attendance here as the relevant member of the Government. I want to make a few points today. This is a community that has been consistently left behind. It speaks to an area of my portfolio, which is the trade and sustainable industry element. I am coming at this as our enterprise spokesperson. Overfishing, as we have heard from many contributors today is compounding these problems. I want to focus not just on the industry itself but the lived reality of fishing communities across Ireland, the challenges they face and the policy failures that are simply squeezing them out of their business. Ireland is an island nation with 12% of the EU's fishing grounds and people along our coasts have made their livelihood from the sea for generations and it is vital that they continue to do so for many more generations. Sadly, however, overfishing has led us to a place where the scientific advice is recommending drastic reductions in quotas, including zero catches for cod, haddock and whiting. We cannot have a fishing industry without fish, and we need to see a policy which makes sure that we have plentiful stocks for years to come. We also need to fix the pattern of overfishing that has brought us here in the first place. We face immense challenges in this area when it comes to protecting our oceans, fishing communities and the jobs of people who live along our coasts. These are challenges that we need to take seriously and which we need to resolve as a matter of urgency. Inshore fishers have been a community that we have consistently left behind. Up and down our coastlines, we have communities that traditionally were full of people who made their livelihood on the sea. For many of those communities that way of life has been almost entirely wiped out in the past 50 years. Those who still do so face decreasing incomes, depleted fish stocks and lack of support in a job that is increasingly perilous.

The Common Agricultural Policy has been a huge support to Irish farmers but the Common Fisheries Policy has left Irish inshore fishers with the short straw on European fishing quotas. This has been compounded since Brexit, where Irish inshore fishers lost another quarter of that quota. These communities, particularly along the Atlantic coastline, which were never the most economically advantaged to begin with, are being pushed further to the margins. As I said, I come at this topic as my party's enterprise spokesperson, so I want to speak about the trade and sustainable industry components of that. In this context, I have heard and said many times in this Chamber that we need to find an economic model in Ireland that is not so reliant on foreign direct investment, FDI, and that is stable and sustainable. That means building up an indigenous industry and protecting it into the future. We need a stable economy and a tax base that we can rely on in good times and bad and which is guaranteed into the future in a world where few things are.

There is a version of our fishing industry that can be all of those things, namely, indigenous, stable and sustainable, but this vision is not yet the reality. Instead, the reality is a way of life that is being squeezed out of existence. It is galling to Irish inshore fishers and their communities, who are also dealing with the rising cost of living and hearing how wonderful our economy is, that their margins are being squeezed tighter and tighter. They certainly do not feel that their interests are being represented and fought for at national and EU level. We have seen the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea call on the EU to significantly reduce fishing quotas and our fishing stocks have drastically reduced. We are in a dangerous situation where fish cannot repopulate at the current rate of fishing. While small fishers struggle to get by, huge factory trawlers are hoovering up fish stocks inside and outside of our waters. We need a common-sense approach to fishing that protects our environment, fishing stocks and Irish inshore fisheries, because right now we have a situation which does not do any of those things.

Tá an saol ar chósta agus oileáin na hÉireann crua. Tuigeann daoine go bhfuil an saol seo crua. Tuigeann siad go bhfuil sé deacair agus contúirteach. Is é an rud nach dtuigeann siad ná cén fath nach bhfuil aon chabhair ar fáil dóibh.

We cannot ignore the crisis as it worsens year on year. We are facing a cliff edge of dwindling fish stocks, dwindling quotas and an industry and community pushed further towards the margins.

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