Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I reiterate my request for a debate on the fishing industry. This is a particularly important issue given that we are renegotiating the Common Fisheries Policy. I ask the Leader to arrange for a debate in early October in view of these negotiations.

Despite the desperately bad deal that fishermen received when we joined the EEC in 1973, I acknowledge, as should this House, the magnanimous decision by the Federation of Irish Fishermen to support the Lisbon treaty. Unlike the farming community which benefited from Europe, fishermen and coastal communities were not allowed to fulfil the potential they offered in the 1960s and 1970s, with the result that they have suffered since.