Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is welcome we are finally consolidating all the legislation in this area into one Bill. As a young law student working at the Bar for my instructor at the Law Society of Ireland, I distinctly remember being asked to do some work on the law of the sea. I had to go to the bottom of the back shelves, dust off old books and try to make head or tail of what was in them. It is a very complex area of law that very few practitioners go into. However, it is really important for us as an island nation to know where our jurisdiction is and what our rights and obligations are. As Senator Craughwell pointed out, to be able to enforce those rights and obligations is a different debate that the House probably needs to have at a different time.

It is welcome nonetheless that we are modernising and consolidating the law in this area and making it easier to digest and for the ordinary citizen to look through. It reflects the fact that, over many years, since the late 1950s, we have had great progression in this area and quite a lot has changed.

This legislation, which I am happy to speak in favour of, brings the State's maritime jurisdiction law up to date and reflects developments in international law represented by the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. That convention laid down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world's oceans and seas, establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources. It enshrined the notion that all problems of ocean space are closely interrelated and need to be addressed as a whole. Amazingly, the convention was open for signature back in 1982, marking more than 14 years of work to get that point, with more than 150 countries participating in the process. It is a fantastic end to that level of work.Much of today's focus should be on the importance of maritime jurisdiction to Ireland as a whole. I recently had cause to engage with Bord Iascaigh Mhara, which is doing fantastic work in promoting fisheries in Ireland and encouraging people to get into the fishing sector and aquaculture. These areas have untapped resources and offer opportunities that we have not done much about to date. We sometimes forget we are an island nation and focus much more on agriculture and not enough on aquaculture. There is an opportunity for coastal communities to get back to their roots in fishing, which is what they do best.

The point Senator Craughwell raised about the fishing community in Cork is a sad story that is not unique to Cork. It also happened in counties Mayo and Donegal. Local fishermen in many coastal communities have not been able to make a sustainable living because of the rules, regulations and difficulties surrounding fishing in their waters. As a State, we can do more to make it easier and more sustainable for coastal fishing communities to fish their local waters.

Some of the aquaculture businesses that are up and running in my county are not Irish but French. They see the potential, having utilised all the potential off their own coastline, and are now operating here. They have been operating off the coast of north Mayo since the 1960s and doing very well. Local businesses are not taking up those opportunities and we must ask why that is the case. Why has a French company been operating in that area since the 1960s when local people do not feel they can get into aquaculture in a meaningful and profitable way and make a business out of it? We need to work on the whole strategy around protecting marine life and encouraging people to set up businesses in that area. This topic is a little removed from the intention of the Bill, but it gives us an opportunity to put these issues on the record of the House.

I will briefly discuss the Naval Service, which has already been mentioned. Our Naval Service is not operating at full capacity. We have had significant issues for a long time now. Our ships are not properly manned. Experienced and technically skilled individuals are leaving the Naval Service and going elsewhere because the job is not what is used to be and supports have not been provided. I welcome recent moves by the Defence Forces to deal with technical pay but that is only a start. It is fine to have legislation that tells us which waters are ours, what zones we can operate in and what level of enforcement we can bring to bear but if we do not have the manpower to do that, the Bill will lie on the Statute Book and not do a whole lot. There is a need for a wider debate around the practical enforceability of this legislation.

We also need to discuss the maritime sector and fishing industry and how we can properly support those industries. We have taken our foot off the pedal in recent decades and focused more on intensive agriculture and not so much on our waters. I ask the Minister of State to take away those couple of points from today's debate and perhaps work them into Government policy in this area. I commend the Bill to the House.