Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I spent the day in Dingle yesterday, and I ask the Leader for a debate on the fishing industry. There is too much regulation at national and EU level of inshore and deep sea fishing boats. The latest regulation is to put more safety equipment on board the boats, but the cost of this is prohibitive and so the fishermen will be put out of business. We will have the safest fishermen in the world as they will all be onshore because they will not be able afford to implement the regulations we have devised. EU regulations on Cromane mussels and fish processing make such work uneconomical.

We instructed the HSE to engage with the Irish Pharmaceutical Union last January, but this did not happen in a meaningful manner. The Thatcherite tactics of the HSE must be discussed in more detail.

Will the Leader ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, when he will bring the Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009 to the House? I refer particularly to the provision whereby a person suffering from economic hardship who cannot get a loan or a mortgage can apply to the council for an extension to their planning permission without having to go through the entire planning process again.

Finally, to my Labour Party colleagues yonder, I had the great honour of sharing-----