Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 37: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the commitment he is giving to marine, aquaculture or inshore funding as contained in the new round of partnership funding for coastal communities in view of the new threat to white fish fishing in area six and the imminent threat to ban small boatmen who operate white fish boats of 12 metres or less in size in the inshore; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9019/09]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I was unsure of the relevance of this question to my Department. I, therefore, have a very brief answer which gives the Deputy the maximum opportunity to clarify the information he seeks. White fish fishing is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted with that answer because there is a very simple rationale behind this question. It encompasses the Departments of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Minister's Department, in terms of the partnership money which was set aside for alternative enterprises in coastal communities such as Inishowen.

The Government is seeking partnership across the floor of the House. It wants us to co-operate and work together because of our serious financial situation. The reason I tabled the question for the Minister is that I respect him as a west of Ireland man who has a cognisance and relationship with rural life and landscape, in terms of how it should be worked and lived on. I need the Minister to sit down and work with the Ministers from the Departments I mentioned. We can create jobs in Donegal tomorrow morning in alternative enterprises in the marine sector. We can create jobs in the white fish sector, not for large boats but for boats under 12 metres. We can create jobs in the aquaculture sector for mussels and oysters.

The Minister knows that as he is a west of Ireland man. However, we are crippled with regulation, legislation and a lack of responsibility at an interdepartmental level. All I have seen from my year and a half as a Deputy in this House is Departments pushing from Billy to Jack and saying, "That is not our responsibility". We need to create jobs in the country. With a little foresight and communication between Departments, we can create jobs. I am sick and tired of tabling parliamentary questions——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy should ask questions and not make a speech.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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——and hearing Ministers say, "I can create jobs in the morning". Donegal, as a county, can create jobs but the Government is not willing to take responsibility.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy will not ignore the Chair.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Get rid of the red tape and the nonsense and get people working again, rather than queuing in the dole offices in Buncrana or Letterkenny.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy will not ignore the Chair.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I am asking the Minister for his indulgence. I apologise to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Chair is on his feet.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I am very angry about this.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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This is question time.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I know it is question time.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I ask the Deputy to allow the Chair to speak. This is question time. The idea is for Members to seek information from members of the Government——

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Which we are doing.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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——and not to make Second Stage speeches.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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It is not a Second Stage speech.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I call on the Minister.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I do not make the rules of the House, but they are clear. If a Deputy tables a question on another Minister's functional responsibility——

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I have tabled three of them.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Allow the Minister to speak.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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If a Deputy asks a question on another Minister's functional responsibility, I am not allowed to answer it. This question was very specific and referred to white fish.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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It related to partnership money.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The question asked about the new round of partnership funding given to the marine, aquaculture or inshore fishing sectors. If the Deputy reads his question he will see the problem regarding its phrasing. Partnership funding cannot be spent on direct support for agriculture or fisheries. It is a European rule.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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What about the marine? The Minister said such money could not be spent on marine or aquaculture projects.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Allow the Minister to reply.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The funding under the Leader programme cannot be spent on direct support for agriculture or fisheries.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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What about alternative marine projects? What about marine tourism? The Minister should look at the question.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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If Deputy McHugh allows the Minister to reply, I will call on him again.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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He is not replying.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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He is not getting a chance to reply. If Deputy McHugh does not want the question to be answered we will move to another one.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I was genuinely trying to puzzle out the answer to this difficulty. I have often returned parliamentary questions to the section if I think I know what the Member is driving at, even where it is not absolutely clear from the question. I try to give the information I think the Member is seeking. In this case, we were genuinely puzzled about what the Deputy was seeking because of the reference to white fish fishing.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Will the Minister intervene?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Minister without interruption.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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With regard to the wider issue raised by the Deputy, he can rest assured that I have said repeatedly that as core, traditional primary production in both the fishing and agriculture industries declines, we must examine alternatives. I gave a speech recently, for example, on the issue of marine leisure, which presents a major opportunity. I have referred time and again to the issue of using rural funds for on sea and on land alternatives. However, I cannot support fishing or agriculture as separate industries.

I have again and again on issues I cannot tease out during Question Time invited members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Sport Tourism, Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to engage in detailed debates on them. Debates have taken place on modulation and so on and whether we should help farmers more outside the farm gate. Most farmers in the west could not survive without off-farm income, no matter how much investment is made in their farms.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the Minister's honesty. The question is vague because it encompasses three Departments. It relates to funding by the Minister's Department for alternative marine enterprise. I have a letter, which I will give to the Minister, in which a salmon fisherman outlines how he made a proposal to set up an alternative marine enterprise only to be turned down by a partnership company on the basis that it did not fund such enterprises. That is a critical issue. I apologise to the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I acknowledge the sensitivity regarding protocol in the House.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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There is no sensitivity. I am obliged to comply with the rules of the House.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I have a job to do and I must listen week in, week out to Ministers saying they would like to hear our ideas. Constituents visit my clinics every week with plans for projects and enterprises but they cannot get through the red tape.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I was surprised the Deputy did not frame the question in the context of the salmon hardship fund and community supports. The Deputy prefaced it by referring to white fish.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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White fish have absolutely nothing to do with the core of the question. Let us put the record straight.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We must move on. We are more than two minutes over time on this question. The Deputy should have some respect for order in the House.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister should have some respect for my question.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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We are more than two and a half minutes over time on this question because I allowed the Deputy to make a long speech at the beginning. I call Question No. 38.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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The Minister was about to reply. I am trying to be helpful——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I have to be fair to every Deputy. A total of 30 minutes are allocated for priority questions and the Deputy has taken up nine minutes.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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——on behalf of people who want to work.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I want to allow for the questions of other Members to be answered. I call the Minister on Question No. 38.