Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

Senator O'Donovan is correct. He has raised a significant number of issues related to the fishing industry in this country. I grew up in west Cork, not far from the sea, but with the way life was at the time, I did not have much of a connection with what was happening in our ports. I had little interest in what was going on. Over the past 20 years we have often heard that, to some degree, we sold out our fishing industry to the European Union and we do not get the maximum from our fishing fleet because of the way we negotiated the Common Fisheries Policy over recent years.

If one is not particularly interested in this issue — if one is not a fisherman, does not own a fishing enterprise or is not a politician — one is not inclined to take much notice. We have done untold damage to the potential we could have had from fishing over recent years. It is time to call a halt to this.

I was very interested in what Senator O'Donovan said about the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, which has probably done more harm to the fishing industry than any individual enterprise in this country. This view is not a case of making political capital. There was a story in The Irish Skipper which described a number of fishing boats pulling into Dingle Harbour. When the Irish fishing vessels arrived, seven State individuals — five sea fisheries protection officers and two gardaí — went towards them to count practically every fish brought in on those vessels. At the same time three Spanish boats pulled into Dingle, with each boat unloading two articulated truck loads of fish while the officers were standing on the quay. The editor of The Irish Skipper approached the officials and asked if they were going to check the Spanish boats. To quote the editor, he was told: "Fuck off and mind your own business." That is the quote from our officials when asked if they were going to check the Spanish boats. At the same time those officials checked every fish coming from the Irish boxes. Every fisherman around the country will indicate they must radio ahead with the number of fish on their boats. If they do not follow procedure to the letter, they are fined and penalised through the courts. We are destroying our own fishing industry.

What happens when boats from our European partners come into Irish waters? The Irish Naval Service cannot check if such boats are fishing illegally in Irish waters as all it can do is check the boats' log books. Naval Service personnel cannot open the boxes. When many of these boats go back to Spain, France or Belgium, there is nobody to check them to see if they are fishing illegally in European waters. I am sure officials in the Department are well aware of this accusation.

For example, the equivalent sea fisheries protection officers in Spain are on strike currently, as they have been over the past two years. None of them works after 3 p.m., so the best action for a fisherman to take if he wants to hoodwink the Spanish Government and European Union on the amount of fish being brought in is to return to port later than 3 p.m.

This can be contrasted with Ireland and the way our agencies deal with our fishing boats. It is quite clear they want to destroy our own industry and there is no equal treatment for foreign vessels in our waters. Although EUROSTAT has indicated €2 billion of fish is being brought in from foreign vessels in Irish waters, it does not know this for sure. The Minister has made an evangelical attack on the fishing industry, implying that all fishermen are somehow criminals in this country because they are landing mackerel in Scotland, abusing quotas or landing fish that are too small. There will always be a percentage of abuse in that regard, but the Minister should beware that he does not destroy the industry. Rather, he should seek fairness across the European Union.

When this matter arose I decided I should talk to fishermen to find out what happens. They say that when the Irish Naval Service — boards a fishing vessel, it seldom asks the crew to haul in its nets. The only navy that consistently asks fishermen to haul in their nets is the Royal Navy. In so doing, they check the size of the nets and examine them for modifications. Some countries have a reputation for taking fish of all species and sizes out of the sea. The Naval Service does not ask fishermen to haul in their nets. I believe the same is true of navies in most European countries.

Officials who represent us in Europe need to be more militant at discussions on the Common Fisheries Policy. To some extent we have been soft on the issue because we did not want to upset our European neighbours as we were getting so much from the Common Agricultural Policy. There is a perceived trade-off between agriculture and fisheries. All the talk about quotas and protecting fish is bunkum if we do not watch quotas or are not genuine about conservation measures. It is very nice to put things down on paper and to have a policy but the reality is that the Naval Service cannot check the boxes to see what fish they contain. Fishing boats are going back to French, Belgian and Spanish ports without any real checks as to what they contain. The decision has been made that those fishing fleets are making a major contribution to both the economic——