I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on what is an important issue for me and my constituents. For those who are not from a fishing community, it can be hard to understand how much of a negative impact the EU and Brexit have had and the devastating downturn these communities have experienced in recent decades. Killybegs was once known as a very prosperous town, with the herring running free, as the famous song goes. It used to be a place where businesses thrived and work was easy to come by. The fishing season used to last from September to May, with fishermen working for most of the year, resulting in plenty of activity and business in the town. Every year for the past two decades, the season has got progressively shorter. We are now at the stage when fishermen are lucky to get a couple of weeks' work before and after Christmas. This has, of course, had a significant negative impact on a once-thriving community because it took a whole town to build and contribute to a successful fishing industry. The entire town has now taken the hit for the decline and every family has been affected. It has come at the hands of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, as well as successive Donegal Ministers. One can imagine how frustrating it must be for our fishermen to see other communities thrive from, and overfish in, our waters without any punishment while Irish boats struggle to get a minuscule quota. How maddening it would be to realise that the EU is in talks to give even further access to our waters to non-EU members while Irish livelihoods are at stake. How utterly devastating it would be for the Government to stand by and allow this to happen and to look fishermen in the eye and promise them the world while at the same time, they are being shafted in Europe.

Successive Ministers for the marine have, unfortunately, allowed our industry to die out, while other countries thrive from our waters. We make up 12% of all fishing grounds and waters in the Union and contribute massively while getting almost nothing in return. No other European country or European minister would accept this so why have we accepted it for so long?

The Government's mistreatment of fishermen dates back to Ireland's negotiations to join the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy. I have raised the fundamental issue of the Common Fisheries Policy numerous times over the past decade. The Irish delegation negotiating the deal had no idea of the value of what they were giving away and it was a bad deal for Ireland. Many of these issues cannot be resolved until the Common Fisheries Policy is fully renegotiated to undo the wrongs that were done to us originally. A weak negotiating stance was also taken during the Brexit negotiations. Brexit was negotiated by a French negotiator who looked after French fishermen while Ireland ended up taking the flak for most of the negotiations and was shafted.

I have criticised the EU and the negative impact it has had on our fishing communities. I am completely against the way the EU has mistreated Irish fishermen and taken complete advantage of our waters. Unlike the Government, I recognise the value of our fishing industry and would never kowtow to Europe at the expense of our citizens' livelihoods. It has been made clear that this Government has not acted in the best interests of fishermen and fishing communities. The future is looking just as bleak. I am extremely concerned about the future of the fishing industry. The Minister claims he has got an additional mackerel quota for this year at last but as I understand it, that quota is still not near the quota we had before Brexit.

I take what the Minister said during his over-and-back with Deputy Michael Collins. I hope he will hold his ground during negotiations with Iceland and will force Europe to shaft us again if that is what it is going to do. The Minister needs to stand his ground and hold it at all times. Everybody in the House will support the Minister in that but it has to happen. It must be done for the good of the Irish fishing industry and for Irish fishermen across the board.

A recent Bord Bia report shows exactly how much of a hit fishing has taken. It details that during 2023, export values in the pelagic sector fell by 31%. The volume dropped by 45% when compared with 2022. The effect of this has been felt in all our fishing towns and by all workers across the industry. At the same time, countries such as Norway have permission to catch four times as much blue whiting in Irish waters as Irish fishermen do, while not receiving any punishment for the considerable overfishing its fishers are engaged in. There is a clear disconnect and lack of respect for the Government and our fishing communities being shown by our so-called EU colleagues. I do not believe they are our colleagues because they take advantage of us at every stage along the way. It is vital that we stand up to that.

Norway and the Faroe Islands consistently and systematically overfish mackerel and blue whiting by up to 44% yearly, severely threatening Ireland's quota. We need to demand a better deal for Europe in light of this and getting a better deal for Europe means getting a better deal for Ireland, which is ultimately what our goal should be. That is vital. Recognition of the Irish Island Marine Resource Organisation, IIMRO, as a producer organisation, PO, is also vital and should happen without delay.

I thank the Minister for sitting through this debate. It is one of the most important debates and it should take place at a regular interval. I also welcome the good news that the Minister has stood his ground in respect of negotiations with Iceland but if anything brings home how the fisheries policy from Europe is not sustainable, and the Minister has talked about sustainability, it is the Common Fisheries Policy, which is anything but sustainable.

This debate is taking place in the context that the inshore fishermen were recently before the committee. Their conditions have been described as harrowing.

We have heard the figures on the mackerel quota. One percent is going to the inshore fishermen, with its 2,000 vessels, whereas 99% is going to a small number of boats. To me, the Common Fisheries Policy was never sustainable but the Minister is trying to stand his ground. It is like trying to hold back the tide. At the moment, he is standing his ground and I understand that qualified majority voting will ultimately come into play.

I have a few questions. I do not have time for a questions-and-answers session but I would like the Minister to answer my questions. I welcome the new consultation process that was announced on trawling within the six miles. It was announced in 2018 that the Government would go ahead with this policy. That was wonderful and I praised the Government many times for it. It was the first light or the first beacon of hope. Here we are in 2024 with no policy and we are starting from scratch. When the matter went to the Court of Appeal, that court held on very narrow grounds that the Government, the Department, had failed to notify the EU and England. That is all. Has the Government rectified this? When does the Minister believe the policy will be in place?

The removal of sprat from our waters is truly frightening. I do not have enough time to read out the details but the amount being taken out is way more than is sustainable. When will the policy be in place? The Irish inshore fisheries sector strategy, for which I acknowledge the Minister is not directly responsible, is now out of date. Where is it? Bord Iascaigh Mhara, BIM, has not been mentioned. When will it happen? What is the position on the heritage Bill for the island and inshore fishermen?

I read out information yesterday on small businesses. They are the backbone of our community, as are the small fishermen. Bialann amháin i gcroílár na Gaeltachta, taobh le TG4, atá i gceist. Faigheann siad na hamhábhair go léir ó na daoine áitiúla, ó Mhaigh Eo agus oirthear agus iarthar na Gaillimhe. Cuireann sé spotsolas ar chomh tábhachtach is atá sé cabhair a thabhairt do na gnólachtaí áitiúla. If we have learned anything from Covid and climate change, it is that we must go local and have transformative action. If anything captures that for me, it is the case of a certain business I am familiar with. I do not wish to single out a business but it is important. There is a restaurant very near TG4 that was set up during Covid. In the context of our debate on the importance of small businesses to the country and their being the backbone of the country, the restaurant in question has provided a paragraph setting out where it gets all its ingredients. It sources locally first and then gets its fish. Somebody goes to the ceant, the auction, in Ros an Mhíl and gets the fish. The vegetables come from the area, or east Galway or Mayo. The ingredients, including the cheese, are all sourced locally or organically but I am homing in on the fish because if anything captures what has happened regarding the unsustainability of the EU fisheries policy, it is Ros a Mhíl – a natural deepwater port that has utterly lost its fish processing and is now considering wind power, which I welcome, but which must be developed in a balanced way, as Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett has said.

There are so many issues concerning sustainability and learning that I would love to talk about but time is limited. Therefore, I ask that this debate be held regularly, with updates. The Minister might get a chance to reply to my two specific questions.

I thank everyone for their contributions this evening. I am certainly happy to have this debate any time the Dáil seeks time and for as long as is necessary. If the Business Committee wanted to allocate more time to everyone and more time for answers, I would be delighted because there is more nonsense spewed on social media and more misinformation on the fishing sector than any other. You cannot beat discussing issues face to face, eyeball to eyeball, and teasing them out in sufficient detail. That is why I go around the country and why I have gone to the vast majority of piers and harbours to meet fishermen directly. It is why I am having a community meeting in Killybegs tonight. It is to meet representatives locally and talk real turkey, talk straight and cut through the myth and nonsense we often see.

To talk real fish.

On the six-mile review, there is an eight-week consultation period. I hope to have the document finalised and the policy published by the final quarter of this year. By the autumn of this year, I want this process concluded and what has been raised in consultation fully considered and brought into play. The former Minister, Deputy Creed, did really good work on this. It was struck down by the courts on a minor technicality. It took a long time to go through the courts and now we have to go through the process. Things have changed in terms of evidence. We have had to do assessments over the past few months in order to do the consultation, and that is now under way.

On the inshore strategy, there is ongoing discussion at BIM. It is leading out on putting this together. There are meetings today involving the inshore sector. BIM has other meetings planned. I want to see the work expedited pretty promptly.

On Deputy Pringle’s comment on recognition for the producer organisations, we now have two inshore organisations: the Irish Islands Marine Resource Organisation, to which I granted approval and which is now in a position to receive funding if it meets the criteria, and the National Inshore Fishermen’s Association, which is receiving funding. We are working with the organisations to ensure the funding can be drawn down. It is really important that we have those-----

We still do not have anything.

The town of Killybegs, which Deputy Pringle mentioned, has probably been impacted by Brexit more than anywhere else in Europe. The sector most affected by Brexit is the fisheries sector, and Killybegs, being the fisheries capital of this country, has therefore suffered the biggest impact in terms of quota, etc.

I remember being on a debate on Highland Radio with Deputy Pringle, whose arms were locked with Gregory Campbell MP advocating that the UK, including Northern Ireland, should leave the EU and do Brexit. I have always found it ironic that the place most impacted by the Brexit decision – it is not that Deputy Pringle influenced the UK but that it went ahead with it-----

Killybegs was in decline long before Brexit. The Minister should know that.

The town most impacted by Brexit in Ireland, if not Europe, is Killybegs.

With regard to Brexit adjustment reserve funding, I put €33 million into Killybegs over the past two years through various schemes. The processing sector in Killybegs alone got €12 million in grants. Recently, €8 million was made available for the pelagic liquidity aid scheme. Over the three or four years I have been Minister, I have invested €33 million in addition to the reserve funding to extend Smooth Point pier, and another €5 million is to be made available this year. There is no doubt that Killybegs has been affected, however, and I very much recognise that. I have organised a meeting there tonight to talk to all stakeholders and determine how we can ensure the town can go forward, be supported through the challenge of Brexit and have its wonderful industry and the wonderful support industries that have grown up around it supported to develop.

Deputy Collins referred to Union Hall. We have put some grant funding into it but no other grant funding proposal has been received. It is in the bailiwick of the county council to put that proposal together and submit it. I will seek to ensure funding is available for piers and harbours such as that at Union Hall in the future. I am providing €13 million specifically from national funding this year to support several piers and harbours around the country. I was glad to be in Castletownbere with Deputy Collins and other colleagues, including Christopher O’Sullivan, a couple of weeks ago to officially open a project at Castletownbere Harbour in which I invested €48 million. An extra 100 m of berth space was developed. Important infrastructure for the town was put in place to safeguard it for the future.

I am continuing to advocate regarding bluefin tuna at European level. Traditionally, we have not had a quota for bluefin tuna. We have one for albacore tuna but not bluefin tuna. I am fighting this at European level; however, where any adjustment to quotas and total allowable catch requires qualified majority voting, it is obviously a challenge, but one I continue to pursue in every way possible.

I discussed the fuel challenge in the inshore sector.

There has been some easing of it recently and I continue to monitor it. I did a second tie-up scheme to support the sector with the fuel challenges. Thankfully, we have seen some easing of it but there is still a real pressure in terms of cost and I continue to monitor it.

I thank everyone for the engagement today. I welcome this opportunity and at any stage that Opposition Members should wish to order it again through the Business Committee and the Ceann Comhairle.