Results 21-40 of 46 for sfpa speaker:Michael Collins

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (27 Oct 2021)

Michael Collins: ...criminalised. Certainly when rules and regulations are applied anywhere it is always the Irish fishermen who come out the worst. We have seen that happen. The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, has been engaged in masses of correcting everything with respect to what it sees as the Irish fishermen doing something wrong. However, foreign trawlers can waltz into and out of our...

Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (27 Oct 2021)

Michael Collins: ...situation off Castletownbere that I still cannot seem to get an answer to and that the Minister states is not under his guise, at the end of the day surely the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, is answerable to someone and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine must have some answers made available to it when people's lives are at risk and there was, as far as I am...

Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Sep 2021)

Michael Collins: ...of the Sea-Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, the joint committee held public meetings with Department officials and engaged with representatives of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and met with and received written submissions from fish producer organisations. The joint committee concluded pre-legislative scrutiny and submitted its findings and concerns in a report...

Maritime Jurisdiction Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (14 Jul 2021)

Michael Collins: ...sent to us every night that foreign fleets are fishing our waters quite bravely. We are losing massive amounts of quota. Many fishermen are left mystified as to who is protecting them. Is the SFPA on their side? Is the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on their side? More and more calls are being made for the disbandment of the marine section of the Department and for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: I thank the committee for creating a slot so that we could bring in the SFPA this morning. This is something I have called for since it previously attended the committee and I welcome our witnesses. There is a crisis in the fishing industry which has been going on for quite some time. In the past 12 months, in particular, we have stumbled from one crisis to another, leading to what we have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...hear how many questions I have, you might be in shock. I will go through as many as I can and maybe I will come back in later so as to give other members a chance. On the weighing crisis, the SFPA submitted a draft new control plan in December 2020 and again in 2021 further information was submitted. This was four or five months before any control plan was revoked. Was that the case?...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Fishing Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (29 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...been imposed on the entire fishing fleet, yet not one fisherman has seen any evidence or shared any information that was compiled by the 2018 audit or the 2019 administrative inquiry, which the SFPA carried out. Why withhold evidence and yet proceed to punish the entire sector? A real dangerous situation is happening here. The SFPA said that it has not shared any copy with anybody...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: The Taoiseach mentioned the weighing issue and suggested it is the business of the SFPA. The bottom line is that the SFPA and the Minister knew in December that there was a crisis. They did not consult with the industry and they are only doing so now when it is too late. Listening to the Taoiseach today convinces me that the Government does not have a plan for fishing other than to kick...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (22 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...the weighing crisis hoisted upon our fishermen, with the weighing of fish on our piers for inshore and pelagic fishermen? We have since found out that the Minister and Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, knew in December 2020 but failed to consult with the industry until 5 p.m. on Friday, 16 April, about what the industry would call a crisis beyond belief. If the Department of...

Fisheries and Coastal Communities: Statements (17 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: .... Nobody has answered any about the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority. It is an authority of its own. It misled us in the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I was there. The Minister told me afterwards that he and the SFPA knew there was a weighing crisis in December. Why was the fishing industry not informed of that crisis until 5 p.m. on 16 April 2021?...

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (16 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...people in this. The Climate Change Advisory Council will be the new Dáil. Move the blame game away. It was the same with the Taoiseach earlier when I mentioned the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and foreign vessels that are able to come into Ireland and do what they like. He told me he had no control over the SFPA. Of course he has no control because that is the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (16 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...one crisis to another in the past 12 months, with penalty points, the terrible Brexit deal for the industry and, in recent weeks, the weighing crisis that the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine have known about since Christmas but did not inform the sector of until 16 April. Now we find out that the Department of Agriculture, Food...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Maritime Jurisdiction (3 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...to them that foreign vessels are protected first and Irish vessels are considered secondarily. Will the Minister of State agree to launch an independent investigation into the actions of the SFPA, why the navy was not dispatched immediately, what happened when the call went in at 8 o'clock in the morning, and why it took three to four days to detain the Spanish vessel? I want answers...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Maritime Jurisdiction (3 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ..., emailed him because he is now denying any communication was made. The emails are proof in themselves, however. That was 10.56 a.m. when I emailed him. I emailed the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, at 10.56 a.m., which came back to me and said it would look into the matter. At 8 o'clock that night, it came back saying there were further investigations into the matter. At 8...

Maritime Jurisdiction Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (3 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: ...believes that our fishermen will lie down and take this but the Minister of State should believe me, the Government is totally underestimating them. To top it all off, we have this weighing debacle. The SFPA knew about the weighing crisis in December 2020 and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine also knew and they never consulted with the fishing industry in the four...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Jun 2021)

Michael Collins: In that time, there was attempted ramming several times. All I want today is a debate on this issue, as to why the Taoiseach's officials, the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and the Valentia Coast Guard were contacted and nothing happened-----

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 May 2021)

Michael Collins: Now we have been led into a catch weighing crisis that is out of all proportion, as the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and the Minister now accept. They knew about it in December and did not acknowledge it to the industry until April. I am asking for a debate on this issue today. It is a serious issue. The fishermen of Ireland will protest tomorrow in massive numbers. This can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill, 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (13 May 2021)

Michael Collins: ..., with the weighing situation. Fishermen have contacted me from south-west Cork and from along the coastline, all the way to Donegal. Representatives of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, appeared before the committee on 20 April. I think they were either misleading us or they were mistaken because they said they were in consultation with the industry in relation to all...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill, 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (13 May 2021)

Michael Collins: ...we were in in relation to the weighing of fish until a solution is found to which everybody agrees? The second question concerns the PwC report in 2020, which was damning. The head of the SFPA is now heading off to a big job in Europe. Was it right for that person to be involved in this audit and that that person had applied for or got such a position, given the timing of the revoking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill, 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (13 May 2021)

Michael Collins: I have a few more questions I want to ask the Minister. I have listened closely for the past hour and a half, or however long it has been. There is an awful lot of talk that the SFPA is to blame, that the task force is to blame, that the task force going to work on this, or that the SFPA will bring things forward. Nobody is making decisions. As I have said, it now looks as though...