Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I am not going to try to portray myself as an expert on fisheries, even though the college I attended was originally set up as a fisheries school. I have real and serious concerns in this regard. I have said in the House on a previous occasion that I would have preferred to see this measure go through pre-legislative scrutiny, where we could have had proper discussion and an in-depth conversation about the impact this will have on the mussel beds on the east coast. The conversation is happening in a vacuum. We are trying to respond to this and I do not think any of us would claim that our amendments are 100% correct or that there are no unknown consequences relating to the amendments concerning the Common Fisheries Policy. However, I do not believe the Minister can provide any certainty either about the unknown consequences of putting this into legislation so quickly. I appeal to the Minister to take a week or two and put this back into a Dáil committee and allow interested bodies to give evidence - be they inshore fishermen or Northern Irish fishermen - where they can be given what I would call a fair hearing. I support Senator Norris's remarks about how brave the fishermen themselves were and how they put their own financial future at risk by taking this to the courts. That has to be applauded and praised. If we are to give this issue its fair dues and fair comment the least we could do is allow three or four hours in committee rooms and ask the fishermen to come in and present their evidence.