A Donegal deputy has called on the government to “stand up for our Irish fishermen, once and for all.”
The Sinn Féin spokesperson on Fisheries and the Marine, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD, was responding to news that the Taoiseach will today meet with fishing industry representatives ahead of the EU Fisheries Council next week that is expected to deliver further devastating cuts to the quota available to the Irish fishing fleet.
“Government after government has meekly allowed our fishing industry to be decimated. The EU’s Common Fisheries Policy is a profound injustice to our fishing communities,” said Deputy Mac Lochlainn.
“Every year, our fishing fleet is refused a fair share of the fish in our own waters. Every year, foreign fishing vessels are allowed to take the lion’s share of this fish and wealth from our waters and it only gets worse over time.”
Deputy Mac Lochlainn stressed that following Brexit and the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement injustice deepened with Ireland’s fishermen taking the biggest hit and accumulating losses of hundreds of millions of euros.
“They appealed for ‘burden sharing’ but their appeals were ignored,” he added.
“The latest nightmare is the utter failure of the European Commission to stop the reckless overfishing of the precious mackerel fishery. Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Russia, aided and abetted by the UK, have ignored the science and brought the species to the brink. A 70 per cent cut in quota is recommended and this will cost our fishing industry further hundreds of millions of euros.
“Throughout all of this, one thing has been constant. A meek Irish Government response and a failure to speak out and to build political alliances in Europe to change this. This must end.
“Today, must mark a radical change in direction. It’s time for the government to stand up for our Irish fishermen, once and for all,” he concluded.
