Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tacaím leis an méid atá ráite díreach romham ag an Seanadóir Coughlan. Tá géarghá le díospóireacht faoi na tinte sléibhe. We certainly need a debate around the impact of the gorse fires and the other ensuing fires. The management of that type of cleaning of lands must certainly be debated. We need to see if we can have an impact on that at policy level.

I raise the issue of our coastal communities. We have seen a major loss of population in our coastal communities and a very good report was produced by the joint committee dealing with agriculture and fisheries in the previous Dáil and Seanad on sustaining rural communities. The report made many very practical recommendations that were agreed across parties. It would be interesting to see if any of those recommendations have been moved forward in the life of this Government.

We are seeing major problems in the fishing industry with a depleted fleet and people losing morale in the sector. There are issues concerning technicalities in quotas and tonnage, etc., so it is important to have a discussion around the future of our fishing fleet, particularly in the context of Brexit and the implications it will have.

Connected to this is the issue of seaweed harvesting, aquaculture, etc., as well as the implications of designations in the area. On our priority legislation list we have the maritime area and foreshore (amendment) Bill, and I understand issues around licensing of aquaculture and seaweed harvesting are being held up until that comes forward. We know the heads of the Bill were approved in July 2013 and pre-legislative scrutiny was completed in February 2014. We have not seen anything of the Bill since. It would be very important to have a debate around that Bill, as well as an indication of when it will come forward. Could we be told if it is to come forward in this session? I will seek clarification of that and a debate on those issues if possible. There are issues around infrastructure in coastal areas, particularly in my own area of the deep water harbour of Ros a' Mhíl. Is that being moved forward? There is also the issue of the road infrastructure leading to those harbours. That is very important in rejuvenating rural areas where the infrastructure projects are located.