A Cork TD has accused both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine of gross negligence and failing in their duty to protect the Irish Fishing sector.
Rural Independent TD Michael Collins said that he had challenged the Taoiseach, the Minister and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) on what he described as “their campaign of imposing far reaching and destructive policies on the entire Irish fishing sector, wreaking turmoil.”
He accused The Taoiseach of showing “absolutely no interest in listening to these deeply held and genuine concerns, which have been created by his own government.”
He further claimed that Minister Charlie McConalogue, who is responsible for fisheries, “acts as a casual observer, more interested in keeping bureaucrats in Brussels and the SFPA happy than actually doing his job.”
“Our fishing communities are being disgracefully abandoned by this government on all fronts – through punitive criminalisation regime signed into law by the Taoiseach last August, the sell-out Brexit deal, and now through the policy of weighing of fish at the point of landing.”
“All these measures were introduced at the behest of non-elected bureaucrats in Brussels. The government had the option of delaying or not accepting all these measures – but, they chose to run with the Brussels agenda instead. n so doing, this enables the agenda of misinformation about the sector to accumulate while the Minister stands idle.”
“Cumulatively, this represents the biggest back-knifing exercise on the fishery sector since Ireland joined the EU in 1973,” Deputy Collins said.
“Clearly, the views of the sector mean very little to this government. If it did, they would have sought those views prior to making any decision on the three destructive polices they have inflicted.”
“To add insult to injury, my questioning of Minister Charlie Mc McConalogue, at the Oireachtas Committee this week, gleaned that he knew that EU officials were seeking changes to the weighting of fish since last December. Yet, instead of providing a copy of this audit report to the sector and enter into tangible discussions, he allowed the report to be leaked to the media and facilitated the SFPA to enforce a harsh new pier-based weighing system at 5pm on April 16 last, with one hour of prior notice.”