Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I do not think there can be any argument among Members that the Irish fishing has been treated as a Cinderella industry that has rarely lived up to its potential and that its important role in sustaining coastal and island communities has never been fully realised. Much of the reason can be attributed to the nature of the agreement when this country entered the then European Economic Community in 1972. That agreement was favourable to agriculture in general but unfavourable to the marine and fishing in particular. The fishing industry in Ireland has failed to recover from those unsuccessful negotiations. The Irish fishing fleet is a small proportion of the fleet that fishes in Irish waters. France and Spain have far larger fishing fleets in Irish waters. The 36-year period since our accession to what is now the European Union has seen gross over-fishing and the potential that exists for the Irish fishing industry has been undermined further.

Other mistakes have also been made along the way. A strategic decision made in the past 15 to 20 years not to support small and medium sized boats and instead to put taxpayers' money into the type of vessels that were nothing less than vacuum cleaners sent out a very bad message on the long-term viability of Irish fisheries. Those in charge of fisheries policy then made a crude attempt based on the maximisation of income and trying to acquire the largest amount of fish in the quickest possible time. Those two major errors still haunt the Irish fishing industry, and we need an alternative in terms of the strangely unrealised potential for an island nation in terms of our fishing industry.

My father is from an island in Donegal and fishing is very much part of that culture and life. I have received representations since coming to this House in response to recent Government policy calling for an exemption for island fishermen in particular because of their reliance on the industry. I can understand the reason such requests are made and I have some sympathy for that approach, but we live in a climate where there has been an over-abundance of fishing in the past decade. In addition, the scientific evidence indicates that to create a semi-viable industry in the near future means the type of drip-feed fishing that has seen fleets tied up for large proportions of the year and people being unable to make a sustainable living as a result.

Even within the confines of both European Union and national fishing policy there is potential for the fishing industry. The most obvious example is mariculture in terms of the different types of food that can be harnessed from the sea. Efforts have been made in recent years to develop that side of the fishing industry. We have significant problems in terms of the white fish industry and the sustainability of salmon in inland and coastal waters. Conservation is the prime focus of protecting the industry in the future. That said, there should not be any difficulty in a European Union context in re-evaluating where we are and stating that the fishing resources within Irish waters are a natural resource which should be used largely for the benefit of the Irish people and those involved in our fishing industry. In an era when conservation has to be key, a higher proportion of the effect of conservation measures should be felt by those countries that fish most and whose vessels and fleets are the ones inflicting the most damage in terms of over-fishing in Irish waters.

It is a challenge for the Government to face up to that responsibility and to say to partners in the European Union that these waters cannot be fished as they are and that access to them cannot be as open as it has been. If we are really serious about the principles behind conservation we must ensure that vessels fishing are of a specific scale, that they use meshes of a specific size, that the nets are only used to a specific depth and that only certain species can be taken out of the water. It is clear that all of those policies have been breached on a wide scale in the past 20 years at least. Until we get that kind of consistency at a European level, the type of pain being felt by Irish fishermen and coastal communities will not go away.

I hope all Members of this House will send a message to the Government, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and to the Ministers concerned that there is a need for a new approach and to do things differently. We must challenge our partner Governments in the European Union because Irish waters have sustained too much damage and the price has been paid disproportionately by our coastal communities and our fishing industry. Irish waters do not exist to sustain fishing industries and those involved in them in other member states of the European Union. Until we get the balance right we will not be able to bridge the gap in meeting the conservation needs of Irish waters and the world's oceans in general. I look forward to the Government being able to meet that challenge and to its achieving sufficient support from the House to do so.