Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)

For months, we in Sinn Féin and our colleague Deputy Mac Lochlainn have been calling on the Government to allow statements on fisheries to take place in this House. In that context, I welcome the opportunity today to finally debate the future of an industry that is at breaking point. This is an industry that has been failed by successive Governments and abandoned by Brussels, but we have reached the point, as a result of years of neglect, where it is in crisis. Across our coastal communities from Donegal to Cork and from Mayo to Wexford, families that have fished these waters for generations are facing devastation. The latest international scientific advice has confirmed what many feared, namely a 70% cut to the mackerel quota alongside severe reductions for blue whiting and boarfish. These are not abstract figures. They are the difference between survival and collapse for Irish fishing communities, so let us be clear about what has happened here.

For years, fleets from countries such as Norway, Iceland and Russia among others have engaged in reckless overfishing of mackerel and other shared stocks. The European Commission has stood idly by. Year after year, it has expressed concern but taken no action. Now the punishment falls not on those who broke the rules but on those who played by them. Ireland, which controls 12% of EU waters yet receives less than 6% of the quota, is once again being made to pay the price for the failures of others. The reality is that the Common Fisheries Policy is broken. It is unjust, ineffective and fundamentally anti-Irish. It rewards those who over-fish and over penalises those who protect the resource. It has allowed foreign super-trawlers to plunder our waters while our own fleets are being decommissioned. If the EU continues down this road, our seafood sector could collapse within a year, wiping out 2,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of euro in exports. For fishing communities such as in my constituency in Mayo and around the coast, this is a crisis, which is why Sinn Féin is calling for urgent action.

The Government must immediately enter negotiations with the European Commission on an emergency financial package to sustain our fishing and seafood industry through this crisis. Those that have been punished for compliance must not be left to sink while the EU dithers. Second, we need a radical reset of the Common Fisheries Policy and for the Irish Government to fight for a fair share of quota in our own waters. We also need sanctions against the rogue states that continue to overfish and we need transparency around who within the EU benefits from these cosy arrangements.

It is vital for our fishing industry that our voice is finally heard loud and clear in Brussels. Our message is simple, enough is enough. The days of polite diplomacy and weak negotiation are over. Ireland's coastal and island communities deserve fairness, sustainability and respect. Our fishermen are not asking for favours. They are asking for justice and a future in the industry that built their communities and fed our nation. Sinn Féin will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with them in Brussels, in this House and in every town and village across the island.

I will say a few words about the inshore sector. The inshore fleet is a vital part of our fishing sector, with almost 2,000 vessels. It provides more than half the employment in our seafood industry, sustaining coastal communities across the island. We will continue the proud history and tradition of Irish inshore fishing by collaborating with the sector and putting in place supports to ensure its growth. Sinn Féin's priorities for the inshore sector include revisiting, relaunching and implementing the Irish Inshore Fisheries Sector Strategy 2019-2023 in full, theme by theme, objective by objective and action by action; adequately resourcing the recently established inshore and islands producers organisations, the National Inshore Fishermen's Association and the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation; working with all sectors of the fishing industry to ensure a fair and reasonable distribution of the mackerel and herring quota and the quotas of other species as they arise; working with inshore fishermen and their representatives to identify new quota and non-quota fishing opportunities to build and grow new markets and identify financial and other types of supports that can be availed of during these turbulent times; developing a continuity grant that can be accessed by the inshore and islands fishing sector to promote growth and revitalise communities; and enacting and implementing the Islands Fisheries (Heritage Licence) Bill 2017.

We have to take seriously what is happening.

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