Independent TD Thomas Pringle said the government has not acted in the best interest of Ireland’s fishing communities.
Addressing the Dáil yesterday, the Killybegs-based Deputy has also expressed concerns for the future of the fishing industry.
“For those who aren’t from a fishing community, it can be hard to understand how much of a negative impact the EU and Brexit have had and the devastating downturn these communities have experienced in recent decades,” he said.
“Killybegs was once known as a very prosperous town, with ‘the herring running free’, as the famous song goes.”
Deputy Pringle also said it used to be a place where businesses thrived and where work was easy to come by. The fishing season used to last from September to May, with fishermen working for most of the year, resulting in plenty of activity and business in the town.
“Each year in the last two decades, the season has gotten progressively shorter and we are at a stage now where fishermen are lucky to get a couple of weeks work before Christmas and a few weeks after as well,” he continued.
“This has of course had a significantly negative impact on a once-thriving community. Because it took a whole town to build and contribute to a successful fishing industry, the entire town is now taking the hit for its decline, with every family affected. And this is at the hands of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments, as well as successive Donegal ministers.”
The deputy was speaking during statements and questions and answers on sustainable fisheries and coastal communities.
“You can imagine how frustrating it must be for our fishermen to see other countries thrive off and overfish in our waters without any punishment, while Irish boats struggle to get a miniscule quota. How maddening it would be to realise that the EU are in talks to give even further access to our waters to non-EU members while Irish livelihoods are at stake. And how utterly devastating it would be for your government to stand by this, to allow this to happen and to look fishermen in the eye and promise them the world while at the same time they’re being shafted in Europe.”
The deputy said the government’s mistreatment of fishermen dates back to Ireland’s negotiations to join the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy, an issue he has raised numerous times over the last decade.
