Rural Independent TD Michael Collins has accused the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie Mc McConalogue, of being “unapologetic as he rammed the Sea Fisheries (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021, through committee stage of the Oireachtas Agriculture committee” which, the West Cork TD said, “clears the way for a campaign of imposing far reaching penalties and destructive policies on the entire Irish fishing sector”.
Deputy Collins said that the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority received new powers from the Bill which he claimed would be used to “criminalise fishers”.
“Any Minister that ploughs ahead with a raft of intimidating new arrangements, which are procedurally flawed, utterly unworkable, negatively impacting the quality of fish, and criminalising fishers on 51 per cent balance of probability, is no friend or ally of the sector,” he said.
“Since assuming office, the government have crucified the €1 billion Irish fishing industry, which employs over 16,000, through massive fish quota losses and a raft of new stringent regulations and penalties, contained in the Bill under deliberation today and will result in fishers not having equality under the law.”
“Every other European national government done everything possible to protect their fishing sectors during the Brexit discussions. In Ireland, the opposite is the case, as our government have accepted a sell-out Brexit deal that will cost an average fisherman between €5,000 and €20,000 in lost annual income,” the West Cork TD said.
“If all that wasn’t bad enough, the Minister is now hell bent in railroading new legislation through the Dáil which reduces fishermen’s rights under the law.”
He claimed that the Bill advanced “an unfair and unreasonable penalty points system”.
“It allows enforcement officers to decide based on the ‘balance of probability’ rather than the more robust and fairer ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard of proof,” he said, accusing Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil of voting down amendments which he said would have strengthened fisher’s rights.