Deputy Conway-Walsh will be followed by Deputy Buckley. There are two minutes left.

I really have to note how much Fine Gael cares about fishing when not one of its Members can even be here to speak on this really important subject, particularly the Fine Gael TDs from coastal communities.

I want to talk about the inshore sector, which provides more than 50% of employment in Ireland in the seafood industry. Everyone is aware of the unfair division of quotas and distribution at an EU level. However, what is even more difficult to understand or justify is how quotas are divided among the Irish fishing sectors.

The most sustainable method of fishing on the planet is hook and line for mackerel. These fishermen make up 95% of the fleet. How can this Government continue to stand over its decision - not an EU decision - to give them less than 1% of the national mackerel quota? The herring allocation is not much better, at 5% for the inshore boats. The current situation favours a tiny minority, while the majority finds itself discriminated against by the Government. It is shameful. I have been talking about this for I do not know how many years since I started talking about fishing.

Article 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy requires the State to allocate fishing opportunities using transparent and objective criteria. These should be based on social, environmental and economic criteria. The exact opposite is happening in Ireland. The Government is not just contravening Article 17; it is breaking its own quota policy. The Government's management policy is supposed to guard against the concentration of quota in a few large companies, but all its policies have done exactly that. By basing quotas on track records and attaching them to vessels, those with money can buy tonnage with the track record attached. Will this Government bring forward a mackerel hook and line policy that is fair and that can deliver for the inshore fishing sector? The inshore sector is an integral part of Erris, Belmullet and all the coastal communities. I do not want to be standing in the Chamber again talking to the Minister about mackerel hook and line quotas.

The Minister mentioned in his opening speech the €305.5 million in support schemes. It is a long time since I worked in a fish plant. We used to process fish in this country that were caught in this country.

We have the possibility here of having a more than €1 billion sustainable industry in this country. We are going the wrong way when I hear previous speakers talking about quotas and the like. These are our waters and this is our fishing industry. Talking to fishermen in Ballycotton, Cobh, Youghal and Goleen, they are struggling. There is a possibility of making this so sustainable. I have spoken to fishermen who say seashells and oyster shells can be crushed and mixed with chicken feed to produce extra calcium. There is all this aquaculture we are talking about. I get very aggrieved when I see the map from Ireland to Greenland and so much richness in that area. We cannot even catch tuna. If I go into a shop or the fishmongers in my town of Midleton and ask where the tuna is, I will be told, "We do not fish for tuna". We have one of the richest seas on the planet. Can we please move away from this talk of giving quotas to X, Y and Z? It is our water. It is our industry. We should support our costal communities, making the best of sustainable resources, making Ireland one of the best countries in the planet in which to catch and produce fish, package it without exporting it from elsewhere, and create a massive multibillion euro industry in this country. We have to stop going backwards and move forward.

I am going through the list of speakers as is and the Minister will have time at the end. Many Members have not turned up but I cannot make that decision just yet because they may still. The Minister can use the time at the end to answer some of the questions that have not been answered. I move on to Deputy Holly Cairns from the Social Democrats.

I thank the Minister for coming in to take questions and answers. It might be a surprise to people watching at home but we do not normally get the chance to do the back and forth, which is kind of shocking in itself but I thank the Minister for doing it today. It is great to be able to actually put the questions to a Minister and get the answers.

I also want to thank the Minister for recognising the organisations and making them producer organisations. That is hugely valuable for decision-making. Having more representation at those decision-making tables was a really important move. I also welcome the fact that he has opened the consultation on the ban of vessels over 18 m from trawling within 6 miles of the shore. It is five years later - a long time - and it is a shame it did not start sooner. Will he give us an outline of the timeline on that? One of issues I want to raise with the Minister may seem, in the grand scheme of things not the most significant, but actually it is significant in the grand scheme of the sector because what we have is two distinctly different parts of the sector and the inshore sector practices a really sustainable type of fishing. Not only does it do that and provide local restaurants, shops and farmers markets and all of those places with really amazing fresh produce, it is also the type of fishing we really need to get behind and support because it is more sustainable, does not damage our marine ecosystems in that way and there are all of these huge benefits to it. Added to those is employment in local areas. Therefore, supporting that sector is really important.

One of issues I always come across in my constituency of Cork South-West is the need for basic infrastructure at small piers and harbours. It was great to have the Brexit BALAMI funding last year. Many small works were done such as handrails, tow rails, extension of car parks and storage areas and all of those things were absolutely brilliant. The Minister knows himself that to do any kind of works out from the land needs a foreshore licence. This is a particular bugbear of mine related to the foreshore licensing system. We often hear the view that "these environmental polices are wrecking rural Ireland" and I find that kind of narrative particularly annoying because the fishing and farming sectors will be the first to be affected by the consequences of climate change. Then we have polices like this. A group of inshore fishers who are practising the most sustainable type of fishing cannot get, for example, the extension of a slipway the distance between the Minister and myself in this Chamber, to be able to lift the pots on and off the boats as otherwise they are pulling them up from a sheer drop at the end of the pier and simultaneously they see it taking five years to ban large vessels from sweeping up all of the stock in that area. How is this protecting the environment that minor works to an area with sustainable jobs and sustainable fishing cannot be done? It is really frustrating for people and results in that feeling that these policies from the environment are "wrecking rural Ireland". We need to take that climate action and I am all for having the areas where we protect the stocks but it is utterly ridiculous that those minor works cannot be carried out to an area that desperately needs it to support employment and support that type of fishing we all need to get behind. Can the licensing system be examined? When it was introduced in other countries, they introduced it because they too thought they needed to protect their marine environment but they did it from maybe 100 m out from the shoreline. This would mean for those basic infrastructure, people would not have to go through a lengthy, massively expensive process with the local authority just to do something basic like that and ultimately the marine environment in that area was still being protected, even though it did not seem to stop the numbers of vessels over 18 m from trawling.

Will the Minister answer that question first and I will come back in then on the quotas?

I thank the Deputy. I recognise her support for the producer organisations, particularly that of the inshore sector, which was not as strongly represented in the past because it did not have that platform. I take her point on the inshore fishing. This is something that has a very sustainable approach and it is important as well for our inshore sector. Obviously, we only have a certain allocation of fish and how it is divided up between the different sectors takes into account the historic track record. Any change to that is often-----

I will come onto the quotas next. My question was about the basic infrastructure and the foreshore licence.

Regarding the foreshore licensing, we have worked hard to try to make sure the timelines involved for allocating a foreshore licence are reduced, certainly within my own Department. If it is a fishing-related licence, my Department issues the foreshore licence. If it is more maritime and leisure, it is issued by the Department of housing. The challenge is where to draw the line. In some cases, there are small exemptions such as for planning. A garage can be built at the back of a house if it complies with certain terms and conditions. If you do not have a foreshore licence for extending something, then you need that. If we have an efficient and effective system for actually applying for it so it does not take a year or 18 months, then it is not such an issue. We are certainly making significant progress in our own Department towards getting those answers and applications processed much more quickly. However, I take the Deputy's point.

I really hope that is realised and that it becomes a more effective and efficient system. The Minister asked where we draw the line. Like I said, other countries for example drew the line 100 m out from the shoreline. I am saying we may need to look at that. We may look at that and find out that this is not doable. I am asking the Minister to look at it and then I really hope the system is made more efficient as well.

The second point I wanted to raise with the Minister relates to the quotas. He always goes into the whole area of the European quotas but I am asking about his decision on distributing the European quota he has received. This is one of the factors that drives the complete disillusionment in the inshore sector with Government decisions on the fishing industry. Taking the mackerel quota as an example, there is no excuse for the fact that 99% - I am not sure if it is 98% or 99% - of this quota goes to fewer than 100 big vessels. Then somewhere under 2,000 vessels in the inshore sector get 1% or 2% of that quota. If there was ever a picture of unfairness in a sector, that is it. Equally, there are concerns about the Celtic herring quota and others. Instead of going into the European situation and all of that, will the Minister please outline, in terms of his distribution of that quota for mackerel, how he came to the conclusion that 98% of it would go to the those 100 boats and the other 2% to the 2,000 inshore fishers in the country?

I have not come to that conclusion; that has been the state of play for a number of years.

A review was done a few years ago which adjusted it and gave more to the inshore sector. It is still small and it was divided up between the pelagic sector and the polyvalent sector. Every time there is a change made to this it can be quite contested because the other sectors - polyvalent and pelagic - resist any reductions to their mackerel. It is something I am currently reflecting on whether there is a need for further consultation to discuss whether there could be a reallocation of the inshore hook and line. Dating from the last review there is an ongoing court challenge to that because the polyvalent sector, in particular, is challenging they did not get enough. No matter when we discuss it there will be conflict within the sector with regard to how that is divvied up. I take the Deputy's point. I am certain the inshore sector will have that view.

It is important to state, just for the record, that how those quotas are divvied out is the Minister's decision. It is blatantly and disproportionately in favour of the larger players. It is something we see a playbook for from this and successive Governments, that there is a disproportionate favour for those big players and that the smaller people in the business have massively lost out. The reality is it is impacting the inshore sector at the moment with markets for brown crab and stuff being much less. There is a lot going on. It would say a lot for the Department to really acknowledge the inshore sector and at the very least allow a bit more of a quota. Some 98% of 2% is just shocking.

I understand that the Minister is meeting officials from Cork County Council soon with regard to Keelbeg Pier in Union Hall. It is one of those areas where works have been done to the main pier and that is welcome for the fishing sector. In terms of the coastline that is used for the community and for lots of different activities and all of those things, there is a major need for works on that area. In advance of the meeting with Cork County Council what is the Minister's view on this? Will funding be made available? Any update on the situation in Keelbeg Pier would be very appreciated.