Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tagaim leis an méid atá ráite ag an Seanadóir Naughton maidir le Gaillimh 2020.

I also commend the members of Pavee Point who have been outside the gates this morning. We have seen a lot of tea and sympathy about Traveller accommodation and it is now time for action. It is important that they have been outside Leinster House today and have brought a petition signed by over 5,000 people asking for action. I know we have asked for a debate on Traveller accommodation and I hope we can have it sooner rather than later because I am dealing with issues in Galway and we are seeing desperate situations on halting sites and unofficial hard stands which must be dealt with immediately. We need the Minister's support on that.

I also note that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine said he will go to Brussels next month to negotiate fishing quotas and I hope he gets a very good deal there for Irish fishermen. It seems ironic then that while that is happening, we have the second largest supertrawler in the world fishing off the Irish coast. It is called the FV Margirisand it drags a net bigger than a football field. I am told that this gigantic vessel can process over 250 tonnes of fish per day and if it was stood on its end, it would be almost twice the height of Ireland's tallest building so one can imagine what damage is being done to our fishing stock. I understand that the vessel was banned in Australia after a huge people power movement forced the Government to ban it from its seas. Is the Minister in charge?

We will be calling for a debate with him on this type of fishing that is taking place in our waters. We see fishermen around our coasts living hand to mouth and fighting for crumbs from the EU table when it comes to fishing quotas yet we see these supertrawlers coming in and hoovering up all around them. It is a matter of serious concern. It has been a while since we had a debate on fisheries issues and it would be better if we had that debate before the Minister goes to Brussels so we can discuss some of the options that are available to him before he goes over to negotiate the fisheries quotas. It would be important to get some kind of indication from him as to what type of inspections are taking place on these supertrawlers that are fishing off the west of Ireland because they are certainly of huge concern to the fishing and rural communities along the west coast of Ireland.