Foreign nationals must be warned of the dangers of fishing along Ireland’s coastline, Deputy Thomas Pringle has warned.
Deputy Pringle’s call came after a Polish man was swept to his death from rocks off the coast of Co Donegal on Saturday.
The man, in his 40s, was rescued by the local RNLI lifeboat crew but was pronounced dead on Saturday night at Sligo General Hospital.
He was living in Enniskillen in Co Fermanagh and had travelled to Donegal on Saturday morning to go fishing.
Deputy Pringle said he fears more foreign nationals will die in similar accidents unless warnings are issued.
“This is an awful tragedy for this man and his family and friends in Poland and here in Ireland.
“This is something that has been talked about a great deal in many of the coastal communities along Ireland’s western seaboard – the fact that some foreign nationals appear to take more risks when fishing along the coast.
“This is very much an anecdotal observation, but I believe there needs to be some sort of public awareness campaign which can reach people of all nationalities but in particular people from eastern European countries.
“I don’t know whether or not some of them are used to calmer conditions along the Baltic sea, but there are unique conditions here and they should be warned about them.”
The Bundoran RNLI lifeboat took to the water within minutes of the alarm being raiseD around 5.25pm on Saturday.
Although they managed to bring the fisherman on board their vessel within minutes, he was already in a critical condition and died a short time later.
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