Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raise a matter that is not as important as I would like it to be in this House or the other Chamber, namely, the position in the fishing industry. What surprises me most is that, despite a number of demands made by well organised fishing industry organisations from County Donegal to County Cork, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, has refused to meet them in recent months. That is worrying in view of what happens during CAP negotiations when the Minister rightly keeps the farming organisations in the loop. When he goes to the European Union, they are side by side and wear the green jersey. In this instance, however, officials from the Department are in Brussels negotiating a Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, and the Irish fishermen's organisations have been kept out of the loop. It is mind-boggling. They include the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation which is Munster-based, the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, the Irish Fish Producers Organisation and the umbrella group, the Federation of Irish Fishermen, FIF. It has come to my notice in the past few days that, despite a number of requests, none of the organisations has been met. It is critically important that the Minister, in a combined effort while the future of the fishing industry is being decided in the Common Fisheries Policy negotiations in the European Union which dictates the amount of fish to be caught and the living fishermen will earn in the next decade, meet these groups as a matter of urgency. I do not like to do this willy-nilly, but it is a serious issue because beleaguered fishermen have their backs to the wall. They are barely eking out a living and are being over-policed by the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority under the regulations and laws introduced by a previous Government, in which I was involved, to which I must confess. I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that the Minister come to the House as a matter of urgency to tell us why he is not meeting the fishermen's organisations to ensure he will take their views on board when negotiating in Brussels. It is unfair that he is working on behalf of fishermen with one hand tied behind his back and ignoring the fishermen's organisations and treating them as second-class citizens. It is very unfair and not good enough.