Sinn Féin’s Deputy Pearse Doherty and Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn yesterday raised with government the issue of a 14-year-old girl being banned from fishing pollock.
The Donegal Deputies brought 14-year-old Muireann Kavanagh’s hook and line with them to Leinster House to highlight the unfair nature of Ireland’s fishing laws.
Speaking to the Tánaiste yesterday, Teachta Doherty said:
“Tánaiste, Muireann Kavanagh is a 14-year-old girl. She lives on Arranmore Island, off the coast of Donegal.
“She catches pollock from a hook and line – the lowest impact fishing.
“Muireann Kavanagh wants a future on the island, but she has been banned from fishing pollock.
“And while Muireann is told by your government that what she was doing is now illegal, she watches from her bedroom window, the foreign super trawlers off the coast of her island hoovering up thousands of tons of fish, including pollock, which your government tell her that for them is perfectly legal.
“By anyone’s book Tánaiste, this is not fair. This is a young girl who just wants to fish.
“So Tánaiste, how do you stand over this? A 14-year-old island girl banned from fishing with a hook and line while foreign supertrawlers hoover up the same fish as a by-product just off her island?”
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