Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A minimum requirement of two thirds of the Dáil and two thirds of the Seanad to override that provision should be enshrined in the Constitution. This should be our aim.

I thank the Leader for his response yesterday - unfortunately, I was attending another meeting - to my call for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Coveney, to attend the House to debate the farming and fishing industries. Even though we had a benign year in weather terms, I am concerned by the plight of inshore fishermen. I am referring to smaller fishermen, most of whom use open boats and fish during the summer for lobster and pollock and fish for shrimp and dredge for scallop during the winter. It is tough work. Many are family people trying to eke out a living.

It has come to my notice that the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority has applied strict criteria on the contamination of various fish stocks. In some respects, this is to be welcomed. However, the criteria applied to scallop are so severe that fishermen may not be able to fish them at all. Many who sent scallop to dealers last year were never paid because they failed a test. The test is different in France and Spain. The scientists should recognise that attached to the main body of the scallop that we eat is a little gut. This is the part that is contaminated, not the meat of the scallop itself. I will not move an amendment to the Order of Business on this matter, but will the Leader ask the Minister to consider how to reach out to these underprivileged and deprived inshore fishermen with small boats who are trying to raise families and make an honest living? I know from my own experience with fishermen that it is tough work. Raising the bar year on year will wipe out their livelihoods. We should reflect on this matter. Perhaps it could be encompassed in the debate the Minister is to take in the House.