Joanne Collins (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister of State. Ireland is surrounded by some of the richest and most bountiful fishing waters in the world. Despite this, our native fishing and seafood industry is in a steep decline. What should be a cornerstone of our coastal economy is now a sector in deep crisis that has been battered by quota cuts, fuel price hikes and increases in costs, all compounded by decades of neglect, mismanagement and weak negotiating by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments.

Not long ago the Taoiseach stood and addressed the UN Ocean Conference in Nice declaring Ireland’s ambition to lead global maritime policy. He spoke of Ireland’s vast marine resources with pride, but here at home we failing to realise even a fraction of that potential. We are failing the industry, failing our coastal communities and failing generations of fishermen who have built their lives around the sea. Sinn Féin recently launched a comprehensive report into fishing and the seafood sector. Hundreds of fisherman, workers and businesses from across the country took part and the results were stark: 90% of respondents believe the fishing industry has declined over the past decade and not a single respondent said it had significantly improved. That tells its own story. Respondents spoke with deep pride in their intergenerational connection to the sea, but also of the hardship, economic strain and mental health toll caused by being locked out of their own waters and ignored by their own government. One of the fishermen who participated said he had fished all this life, that his father had fished before him but that he did not want this son to take it up. He said it was too hard and too unfair. That is not just a personal story but a warning.

There has been some improvement. We welcome the appointment of a dedicated Minister of State with responsibility for fisheries, which is long overdue. We also welcome the re-establishment of the dedicated Oireachtas Joint Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, which Sinn Féin chairs. That committee must mark the beginning of a serious reset in the industry here and in Europe. However, we are not naïve. Talk is cheap and what we need is real action.

The view from the North is that fishing communities face unique challenges. Lough Neagh, Ireland's largest inland water, remains under ecological siege. Eel fishing has been suspended, the seasons are shortened and livelihoods are under threat. The Executive's Lough Neagh action plan must be resourced and implemented without delay. Meanwhile, Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard has rightly demanded assurances from the British Government that County Down fishermen will be included in the £360 million fishing and coastal growth fund. Brexit devastated fishing in the North and this fund must redress the damage. We have an offshore crisis. Irish fishermen are being shut out of their own waters. Brexit and a broken Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, have cost our industry €140 million in just four years, with 39 fishing vessels having been decommissioned at a cost of €56.5 million. What has this Government done so far? Precious little.

The Minister of State continued to evaluate the CFP but, in plain and simple English, it is time to do something; evaluation time is over. The CFP is broken. It must be scrapped and replaced. Sinn Féin will lead the call for root-and-branch reform at EU level. Ireland has 12% of EU fishing waters but we get just 5.6% of the quotas. That is not just unfair; it is indefensible. We support the call to block Norwegian access to Irish waters until our own fishermen are treated fairly. We also demand a level playing field in monitoring and enforcement. Right now, Irish boats face a two-tier system of regulation and they are being punished for it.

On the inshore and aquaculture sector, as much as 95% of our total inshore fleet is being left to sink. These boats fish for crab, lobster and other non-quota species. Representatives of this sector have appeared before the agriculture and marine committee pleading for basic crisis funding but they have been ignored. Sinn Féin has repeatedly called for a fuel support scheme, just like other EU states have done, but there has been no response.

Our aquaculture sector is mired in outdated legislation, red tape and a lack of vision. The system for aquaculture licences remains clunky, bureaucratic and unfriendly to growth. Sinn Féin has called for the full implementation of the 2017 independent aquaculture licensing review and we will keep pushing until this is done.

Earlier the Minister of State spoke about the EU-UK deal. It was an absolute hammer blow to Ireland because 40% of our quotas were transferred from the EU to the UK, without our say so or consultation. The deal that has now been extended is not acceptable. Ireland must demand a fairer deal before this new agreement is ratified, and if the EU will not do it, then this Irish Government must do it.

Sinn Féin has a plan to rebuild, reform and renew. We call for the establishment of a fish Ireland office in Brussels to conduct a full review of the Department of the marine and all State bodies under its remit, assessing their performance, transparency and delivery. We call for the launch of an independent root-and-branch review of the fishing and seafood industry to shape a long-term rebuilding strategy. We demand that the senior departmental officials appear before Oireachtas committees and are fully accountable. We would like an audit done of all harbours and investment in the infrastructure sought by communities. We call for the creation of an independent oversight body for the Sea-Fisheries Protection Agency, SFPA. Sinn Féin will also push for a full fuel support scheme, which is needed, fair quotas for distribution, investment in apprenticeships, training and sustainability, and a complete ban on the supertrawlers and factory vessels that do untold damages to our seas and waters.

We owe it to our fishing families, coastal communities and the generations who have lived by the sea to fight for fairness, sustainability and for their future and ours. Sinn Féin is committed to rebuilding a fishing and seafood industry that works for the people, not for foreign fleets nor bureaucrats in Brussels and political insiders who have failed them for decades.