Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to be open-minded on this matter. Fishermen would not have gone to the Supreme Court lightly and exposed themselves to such huge costs if they were not sincerely concerned about this matter. Unfortunately, we have a history of throwing fishermen under the bus and destroying their livelihoods. That is not a criticism of any single party, it is just historically correct. Fishermen did badly when Ireland joined the EEC and since then every Minister for agriculture has been trying to pull back from that and give them a livelihood.

I come from Ringsend which was known locally as "Raytown" because ray was so plentiful and was sold for little or nothing in the village. Ringsend College was original established as a marine school to teach local young people the skills to fish on trawlers. That industry has been totally wiped out there now, although there are still fishermen in north and south County Dublin. We must try to correct the situation and ensure that inshore fishermen have a livelihood.

I am glad that because of our intervention we will get to discuss the Bill on Committee Stage, but I would have preferred to have pre-legislative scrutiny of the measure. In that way we could have invited witnesses in to test the legislation. The least fishermen deserve is to be heard at the pre-legislative scrutiny stage in order to ensure that we are doing the best for them. Life is tough now for fishermen who are struggling hard to survive. They were brave to go to the Supreme Court and challenge this.

Many fishermen to whom I have spoken do not think this is a good neighbour agreement, they just see themselves losing out badly as a result of it. My party would support the Minister if he could take this Bill back for pre-legislative scrutiny. Let us make sure that we are doing right by the fishermen all around our coasts.