Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I put on record my appreciation to the Leader for arranging this debate so swiftly after Senator O'Donovan's call for such a discussion in the House last week.

For too long our fishing industry has been sidelined in order to benefit other sectors of the economy. Fishermen have paid a very high price for that and it is to their credit that we have a fishing industry at all. Dr. Noel Cawley stated, "The stark reality is that decisive and radical action is now called for at national and EU level to safeguard the seafood industry, the fish stocks and the future of coastal communities". Nobody will disagree with that, least of all sectors of the industry.

This Government was formed in mid-June and it took until October to officially assign responsibility for the marine to various other Departments. That is not very helpful. The origins of the creation of a Department dealing with the marine go back to an incident off the south-west coast in the 1980s when the Kowloon Bridge was shipwrecked. Former Taoiseach, the late Charles Haughey, to his credit created a Department which took in all facets of the marine. That in itself was visionary and it was the right action to take. Unfortunately, in 2002 it was broken up and various functions of the marine are now spread across four or five Departments.

There was a piece in The Irish Times yesterday with input from Dr. Ronan Long of the NUI in Galway. He warned that we are jettisoning benefits gained from existing marine policies and structures because we are, as he puts it, going in the opposite direction to the EU in this regard. People who are involved in the marine to the point that they can produce an analysis touching on the political break-up of the Departments must be listened to. We have an opportunity to be a leader in many facets of the marine, not least in research and science. We must take full advantage of that opportunity.

There are a number of issues to raised about the report itself. This is one of the few areas where we all know what needs to be done and how it can be done. The industry and an independent chairman is willing to run with the report but there is no political will to go with it so far, which is disappointing. If we had the same type of blueprint for health, I imagine the Minister for Health and Children would run fairly quickly with it.

There was an incident in the Dáil recently where the Tánaiste, Deputy Cowen, was taking questions on behalf of the Taoiseach and an Opposition Deputy raised a question on marine legislation. Like a deer caught in the headlights, the Tánaiste had to consult one of his colleagues to find out the responsible Minister. That goes back to the point I made at the outset, which is that because the marine is split among so many different briefs, from transport to the environment to agriculture, there is no clear political responsibility. That is bad. All other countries in Europe have been associated with something. Sweden and Finland are associated with Abba, Nokia and similar brands. We could lead the way in the marine. The map of Ireland is more than the landmass, it includes the waters around it, and we should protect it carefully.

It is disturbing that there is no clear timeframe for decommissioning the fleet, the attitude to that must be changed. There is no clarity on taxation issues, causing discomfort for those in the sector. Recently when fishermen met Commissioner Borg, he said it would have to go through the normal process. What stage is decommissioning at? Has funding been set aside for it and has due consideration been made of the taxation implications? Anyone from a coastal constituency can tell the Minister that the salmon hardship fund was not all it appeared to be initially. People in the sector are willing to change, to go along with the Cawley report and take the tough medicine that is being dished out but there is no attempt to make these people confident about the implementation of the recommendations.

We must re-examine quotas. When there is a decommissioning programme under way in January, there should not be a problem with quotas in February. There is an appalling situation in the North Sea where prawn fishermen are catching cod and other white fish and dumping them back into the sea because it is an offence to bring them back to port, even though it is not an offence to fish them.

This is one of the few areas where we know what is needed and how to do it. What current and capital funds have been set aside in the BIM budget for 2008 to deliver on the main recommendations of the Cawley report, starting with the capital investment programme, decommissioning, communications and marketing?