Pádraig Mac Lochlainn
Donegal · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“In recent days, First Minister Michelle O'Neill visited Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce. Present were the heads of Donegal County Council, Atlantic Technological University, Donegal ETB and a range of employers and businesses from across the county.”
“The opportunity to progress towards a united Ireland is incredibly exciting. It is an opportunity to reimagine our island and its potential. David McWilliams wrote in recent years about the impact of partition on the North of Ireland. Some 100 years ago, Belfast was larger than Dublin.”
“There are many challenges and issues but the easiest one is going to be the economic benefits of a united Ireland. They will be immense, particularly for the northern half of the island. As an eminent economist said, if the North of Ireland can perform at the level of counties Cork and Kerry alone, there will be no issues.”
“In recent weeks, the Taoiseach talked about the importance of the Minister of State with responsibility for the marine. However, incredibly, it is the Minister for agriculture who will address the European Parliament's committee on fisheries today.”
“That would give a clear message that the Taoiseach is serious about giving the Department of marine and the Minister of State with responsibility for the marine independence to speak and fight for our people, rather than the Minister for agriculture, who could not possibly know anything about these matters.”
“Nationalism is united on this issue. We are asking for responsible preparation, a Green Paper and a citizens' assembly to make the plan and the case. The Taoiseach says that he is an Irish republican and a united-Irelander, then he should make the case and have a plan. That is what nationalism wants.”
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“For a holiday home owner, for someone who owns more than one rental property and for most people who cannot afford to go through the scheme, that semi-detached building will still stand. They will still be knocking down semi-detached buildings. This is madness. Any builder or engineer would ask what the Minister is playing at here. I ask the Minister to please listen to those of us who are on the ground in the west of Ireland and to do what is right and fair. He knows this is wrong. I ask him to please stop it, confront his officials and do what is right.”
“I will continue for one more minute with the forbearance of my colleague. What is the issue with these incrementalist amendments? The issue is the Government is still excluding people. It put a date of March 2029. It was bad enough the Government took over a year but now it is excluding dozens of families. It is so cruel. They will be out tens of thousands of euro. Why did the Government put the date of 29 March 2024 to coincide with the publication of the SCSI report? That does not stand up because that report would have looked at costings into 2023. I ask the Minister not to be cruel and not to exclude dozens of families who are desperately waiting on this money. They are panicking that this will not be conceded by the Minister. Please concede our point. We will, of course, put in amendments. Finally, there is the semi-detached issue.”
“Then, in a response to a parliamentary question, it is, "No, actually, it's our scheme of last recourse. We're doing you a great favour." This is second-class citizenship.”
“Over a year later, we finally have this amendment. It could have been done long ago. It could have been done within hours, with the political will. This is incrementalist. This is second-class citizenship, folks. The Minister knows it is wrong. I have responses from Ministers, including the Minister, Deputy Browne, and his predecessor saying out loud that it is about money. If people live in houses, which have to be demolished and rebuilt, it is too much money and the Government will not give them 100% redress. It said it never actually called it "redress". Minister after Minister and Department official after Department official has come before committees and come into this Dáil and called it 100% redress on the record of these Houses.”
“There is a small number of families this scheme can work for; maybe they have family in the building game or can access €50,000 or €60,000. We have a situation where people are living in shocking conditions but cannot afford to go through the scheme, so they are just left behind - second-class citizenship. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland was tasked with looking at the costings in 2023. In March 2024, the society reported to Government. The Minister had the flexibility in the legislation to increase the cap by 10% and the caps on the square meterage. The Minister did that in or around October 2024 and, at the same time, promised that those already going through the scheme would be able to avail of the increased cap. That was a huge thing because we are talking about tens of thousands of euro. That is huge in people's lives.”
“If they bought the small TV, we can afford to compensate them but if it was the bigger TV, they get some of the compensation but not the full compensation." Here is the reality in the west of Ireland from Donegal to Mayo right down to Limerick and Clare. People are being left behind. They have to fill huge gaps with money. I will tell the story again of the family I met on their site. They were traumatised; their house had been demolished. They downsized their house under the new plan, by the way. They had a mortgage of about €900 per month with six years left. In order to rebuild their lives with the Government scheme, they will have a mortgage that is double that at €1,800 and which has 21 years left. That is what 100% redress looks like in Donegal and the west of Ireland.”
“If you are in Dublin and Leinster, the pyrite remediation scheme that has helped almost 3,000 families is genuinely 100% redress, and rightly so. They have a scheme that is delivered directly by the State. They do not negotiate with builders and developers over prices. They do not have to navigate all the paperwork and project management. They get 100% redress delivered by the State. We have said again and again that no matter where you live in Ireland, you were utterly failed and you must get 100% redress. Can the Minister imagine a scenario where two people go into a shop and one buys a small TV while the other buys a big TV? These TVs do not work. They are utterly faulty and the shop owner and the State say, "We're sorry. We don't provide any protection for the person who bought the bigger TV. It's about the cost.”
“This is a long, long time coming. As we know, the 2022 legislation was rammed through the Dáil. I will never forget it. The homeowners who were up in the Public Gallery were absolutely traumatised and were banging on the screens. I will never forget the look on their faces outside afterwards. They were absolutely betrayed. They had engaged honourably with Government and they were betrayed by a scheme that condemned our people in Donegal and the west of Ireland to be second-class citizens. It is absolutely shameful that we have victims of the scandals of defective concrete products all across Ireland, from east to west and north to south, and that there is first-class citizenship and there is second-class citizenship.”
“We have the defective block amendment legislation this evening. We have waited over a year for what was a simple amendment. It took a crazy amount of time. We only got sight of the actual published legislation at 10 a.m., which was hours before we were supposed to debate it. That is not an acceptable way to do business on such a serious matter. I also want to object about the housing statements. There is not enough time for them. I ask that they continue into next week.”
“It is what Britain got and it cannot have its cake and eat it. This is about countries which I respect, such as Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. I have nothing against their people or the British people but this is reckless behaviour. It is unjust and unfair. We have to call it out and it has to stop. We need to have fairness and justice. We need to protect jobs in our vulnerable coastal fishing communities.”
“I do appreciate the fact that we have a dedicated Minister of State for fisheries, which has been a welcome development, who is engaging and listening to our communities. We now need to use that resource with all the knowledge, working hand-in-hand with the Irish industry, to confront this injustice once and for all and to say to the European Commission that what happened with Brexit was so wrong. We did not have burden sharing and we carried so much of that weight. I am glad the Minister mentioned the UK. It is a party to this recklessness. It benefited from Brexit. It got an agreement that was not based on relative stability or track record. It was based on what is called zonal attachment and those communities closest to the fishing waters. This is what we would love to have in Ireland.”
“This is a matter of great urgency, and it goes to the heart of the need to really have a Common Fisheries Policy that is just and fair to our people.”
“The difficulty is that there are corporations based in the European Union that have invested in the fleets in Iceland and the Faroe Islands that have been recklessly overfishing. My concern is that there has been a lack of political will as a result of their lobbying skills over the last number of years. We have been watching this slow-moving car crash. Mackerel is a precious species. It is a migratory species. It spawns off the west coast of Ireland and works its way up to those northern waters. To see it recklessly overfished to the point where we could lose it very soon is utterly heartbreaking. There are hard-working people who took chances in this country and who built up a pelagic industry, and they have been betrayed by this failure to deal with this issue.”
“The Minister of State knows that the Irish fishing fleet took a huge hit as a result of Brexit, and the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement resulted in a huge loss of fish, but it is about to get a whole lot worse with the imminent cuts to the mackerel quota. Mackerel is a prime fish species, which is really critical to so many jobs in Ireland. I want to get a sense of the Government's plan on how to mitigate this and also to ensure that those who are recklessly overfishing are stopped urgently.”
“Some 40% of the passengers who use the City of Derry Airport are from Donegal. The Minister of State understands the geography of Derry and how close it is to Donegal. It serves a region of about 500,000 people. If he gets a map of Ireland out, he will see that, unfortunately, we do not have a motorway connection. Our hearts have been broken with the A5 delays. We do not have a direct rail connection from Derry to Dublin and on to Donegal, so this air link is vital. It has been a long battle but it is good news and I welcome the Government's funding of it. I would like to bring it forward as soon as possible. From talking to the airport team, they feel confident they can do this in the first half of next year. I ask the Government to work in partnership with the airport. Let us take this project home.”
“The announcement by the Government after such a long time that it will restore funding for the Dublin to Derry air link is extremely welcome. The population of the north west of Ireland is about 500,000. The removal of this air link was devastating and continued to devastate us for a long time. We need to get it restored as soon as possible. I want to get timelines for when we will have this link restored.”
“I thank all the representatives of the farming organisations in the Public Gallery tonight. They are standing up for their communities and saying not to take them for granted. The Government should not take their support for granted. They are putting it to the Minister to stand up to the hypocrisy and the double standards, so that everything that is said by the European Commission and all the agricultural policies are held to scrutiny like never before, and that the Minister should build support across Europe to stop this and put an end to it, to say that we have standards in Europe and that if you want to come into this market and compete, you must reach those standards too. It could not be simpler. It really is straightforward. It is over to the Minister now. I look forward to hearing what he has to say.”
“All of my life in politics, I have talked to farming families who are asked to adhere to the highest standards possible. That is why we have world-class products when we talk about grass-fed Irish beef, the pride of the world. We are the highest exports in the European Union. Our farmers have been asked to bend over backwards again and again to comply with environmental standards. They have been held up as a scapegoat around climate change again and again. That is what they have had to put up with. It is galling and sickening, therefore, to have the same European Commission that demanded the highest standards possible in the world for our produce to then have produce at a whole different scale competing with us. This is absolute madness. I commend Deputies Kenny and Newsome Drennan on bringing the motion forward.”
“Does this Government learn nothing? We had the absolute farce and spectacle of the Lowry Independents being in government and in opposition and all that led to, and here we are today with Leaders' Questions, Questions on Policy or Legislation and Taoiseach's Questions gone. The Government is absolutely scrapping accountability today. Just at the stroke of pen, it is scrapping accountability. There is no talk about business committees any more because the Government does what it wants to do. It never learns and it makes a farce of democracy in the House. We are absolutely opposed to this. The Government never learns and it is making a mess of this place again.”
“The defective concrete products scandals have destroyed so many lives across Ireland. The Taoiseach's Government recently extended the pyrite remediation scheme. Almost 3,000 families in Dublin and Leinster have rightly received 100% redress. The State will take responsibility for the remediation of their homes directly. It is a very different scheme in Donegal, Mayo and the west of Ireland. Why are our people in the west of Ireland second-class citizens? Why does the Government insist on a scheme that leaves people with huge gaps between what it will provide for them and what builders will charge? Why has it introduced amendments to legislation which are minimalist and a huge disappointment? I appeal to the Taoiseach. We have had many exchanges back and forth. Please urgently listen to us in Donegal, Mayo and the west of Ireland.”
“Homeowners and small businesses are being absolutely crippled with electricity costs. We know that wind energy plays a critical role in reducing those costs. It is important the amendments to this legislation put forward by Sinn Féin are taken on board by the Government. We need full accountability here. We need a direct link between investment from the State into the ESB infrastructure and reduced costs for homeowners. People are being fleeced. We used to have the cheapest electricity in Europe. That was when we owned our own infrastructure and the company that charged the bills. We handed it over and wrecked the model we had. What is worse is that the wind turbines we have put all across the country are not feeding into the grid. We are not getting the full benefit of them to reduce costs.”
“There is a major wind farm just above my hometown in Buncrana. Recently, I drove up the hill and observed that half of the turbines were actually turned off. When I made inquiries as to why that was the case, apparently the electricity infrastructure just is not there to take the power from them. It is absolutely extraordinary. These wind turbines are there a very long time. I just have to ask: what the hell is going on? Apparently, a significant percentage of the wind turbines that are dotted all across County Donegal do not actually feed into the grid. This is just crazy. Then there is a direct link between this failure to plan properly in terms of infrastructure and in terms of what people pay. People are being crippled here. The Government knows this.”
“Of course, Ivan Yates should have disclosed his working relationship with Fianna Fáil. The Minister, Deputy Chambers, was the director of elections for Fianna Fáil during the presidential election. Did he not see a responsibility to publicly declare this relationship?”
“In three successive elections Fianna Fáil engaged and paid for media coaching services provided by broadcaster Ivan Yates. He coached six Fianna Fáil Ministers, including the Taoiseach, yet you failed to disclose this relationship even though there was a clear conflict of interest. You knew Ivan Yates was playing for your team, contributing to Fianna Fáil election strategy and then presenting himself as an independent commentator in the national media, yet you said nothing. Fianna Fáil already attempted to engineer a situation in this Dáil whereby Michael Lowry's crew could sit in government and opposition at the same time. Now, you think there is no problem with a consultant working for your party and then working for the media whose job it is to hold you to account.”
“In my remaining minutes, I want to talk about the inshore sector and the islands sector. They cannot be forgotten about. The inshore sector is looking for financial supports for their fishers. If we look at the farmers, they have always, and rightly, had financial supports under the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, because they could not live on what they earn from the produce. Similarly, we recently had a basic income support for the artistic community. I welcome that, too. We need to see proper financial supports for inshore fishers. They are fishing single-handedly and putting themselves in real danger, so they need supports. In terms of the islands, we need to look at Article 17 of the Common Fisheries Policy. We need fairness for our island communities and fairness for our inshore communities as part of this overall process.”
“In terms of our permanent representation and the Department of the marine, we need to up our game on. I proposed a "Fish Ireland" office, where the industry and our Department would be hand in hand, permanently based in Europe, promoting our seafood industry. That needs to be looked at right now and how we can turn this around and turn a crisis into an opportunity. I want to talk about the issue of third-country vessels from Norway and Iceland. It is very clear to me that if they refuse to act responsibly and do what is right for all of us with the mackerel resources, they should not be allowed to fish blue whiting in our waters. It is utterly offensive. Any country that is not being responsible and not behaving right should not be rewarded. Clearly, that needs to be dealt with. There needs to be proper control of those vessels.”
“I agree with everything he said about the need to talk to everybody. We need to tell our story. Our fellow member states need to understand the injustice the Irish people have suffered under the Common Fisheries Policy. I am sorry to say that Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands, the Russian Federation - there are huge sanctions in place against that last anyway - and the UK have in this case been rogue players in overfishing mackerel. They need to accept that this is utterly wrong. They need to stop the overfishing and there needs to be a real approach from Europe in terms of justice for our people. We are a small country and we deserve that support right now. I trust the Minister of State will engage strongly on that. We need to have very strong representation in Europe.”
“When we talk to any fishers, they say they want to fish. They want fish. That is what I want. Right now, though, we have to deal with the reality. Of course we need to bring in the Hague preferences. Of course we need to see a review of the Common Fisheries Policy. Of course we need justice. Of course the huge factory ships hoovering up the fish and the industrialisation of fishing has to end. In the here and now, though, we are going to need financial supports to save our industry and save as many jobs as possible. That means emergency short-term financial support. In terms of the quota management and licensing, we need reform of the Common Fisheries Policy. All of that has to be looked at. I defer to my colleague, Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher, who was a Minister of State with huge experience.”
“That is what we are talking about here. If we look at the supports needed, we clearly need to see the Hague preferences. That has to happen this time. Burden sharing did not get delivered to our people. We were left carrying the weight of Brexit. The Hague preferences are absolutely essential. They will reduce some of the blow. It is time for BIM to step up. It has offended the industry unbelievably with the report it has issued. However, it can heal those wounds by doing a strong impact assessment, working directly with the industry on the real figures and the real data in the here and now. It needs to do an impact assessment looking at all the scenarios - short, medium and long term - in terms of what supports are needed. We are going to need financial supports. I am glad the Minister of State said it.”
“We are talking about an estimated potential loss of €200 million next year. It is really unprecedented in scale. It is absolutely scandalous that BIM published the report it did today at a time we are dealing with this. In terms of the organisations dealing with this issue, I have with me submissions from the Irish Fish Producers Organisation, IFPO, and the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, KFO. Obviously, those two groups are particularly impacted by the pelagic cuts. According to the submissions, under the model quota scenarios, up to 837 direct jobs could be affected in some manner in the pelagic catching sector. That is not talking about indirect jobs. That is the threat. When including indirect and induced effects, the potential total impact goes up to 2,361 jobs across the wider seafood economy.”
“Remember, the inshore sector is dealing with prices it had 30 years ago for its fish but its costs have increased tenfold. To be clear, it is not just the offshore sector that is impacted by this, but also the inshore sector. What are we talking about here in terms of impact? I have spoken to the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, which has provided me with its impact assessment. When I go through it, it shows mackerel is important to the producer sector and the factories. It is a huge part of their profits. I have been provided seven examples. Looking through them, the impact of the mackerel cut will be absolutely devastating. We are going to lose hundreds of jobs here, there is no doubt about it. It is not just pelagic, as we know, but also white fish, nephrops and various seas.”
“They are based in the European Union and I believe they have a huge influence in the European Commission. Ireland has, yet again, been utterly shafted by those at the top of the European Commission. They did it to us in Brexit. There was no burden sharing. There were just some financial resources, but that was allowed to happen, and here we are again. This has been warned about, and we have been hearing about it, for years. Our producer organisations have been talking about what is coming down the line. Last year, we had a very significant cut in mackerel. This year, what is being suggested is devastating. It is not just mackerel, as the Minister of State knows, but blue whiting and boarfish. This has a knock-on impact on the inshore sector, which needs blue whiting and mackerel for bait. Its prices are going to go through the roof.”
“I am sad to say they are a country I admire, Norway, another country I admire, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. Complicit in this and supporting them are the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. They are complicit in this practice and they are rewarded. The UK has had its trade and co-operation agreement extended for 12 years. There is no price to pay for this. When I learned about the absolutely devastating impact of these cuts, which are clearly coming because they are based on science, I asked the question: who benefits from this within the European Union? There are major fishing corporations based in the European Union that invested heavily in the fleets in Iceland and the Faroes. They have been actively involved in this strategic overfishing.”
“It was an industry that the ingenuity and ambition of our people built up. We built it up. It was a world-class industry we built up here with thousands of jobs created on the back of it. It is a migratory species that spawns off our west coast and works its way up the Atlantic, so it is a shared resource. As we are in the Common Fisheries Policy, our fishers must follow the science. They must follow the advice from ICES every year and quotas are allocated on that basis. That is right - our fishing should be based on science. It should be sustainable and responsible. I absolutely agree with that. The problem is that there are rule breakers and rogues out there who have been utterly reckless and selfish, and they have paid no price whatsoever.”
“There is no future for them and their families. I am now going to get into the unprecedented crisis we face, an "economic Armageddon", to quote Mr. Brendan Byrne of the Irish Fish Processors and Exporters Association, IFPEA. We need to wake up once and for all. The Chinese - the Minister of State is going to China next week - tell us that a crisis is also an opportunity. This is an opportunity for a reset of our whole mentality in Ireland, in the Government, in our Department of the marine, in Bord Iascaigh Mhara, in the SFPA and in every single agency interacting with our fishing communities. There has to be a whole change. It is outrageous that BIM let that report go to print at a time like this. It is outrageous, offensive and unacceptable. With regard to mackerel, it is a precious resource to our fishing communities.”
“There is a story online on theskipper.ie . It is the Bord Iascaigh Mhara, BIM, annual fisheries report and it has caused outrage in the fishing industry because, essentially, the report says it is all fine. It is good; it is all fine. It is data from 2023. This has to stop. We have to stop denying what is happening. My party conducted a survey late last year of hundreds of fishers and their families. They did not just respond to the survey; they could make some commentary. What was in that report, which I have emailed to the Minister and Minister of State, is absolutely harrowing. It is heartbreaking. People are talking about having fished for generations. It is a tradition and a heritage and it is ending with them. I met fishers, face to face, who were in tears because they were fishing single-handed.”
“They are inspirational. The model for how we break down the impact of the Border, work together and talk about one region and one people using our resources wisely is there. It is happening as we speak. If we look at the chambers of commerce in Letterkenny, which essentially represents the county of Donegal, and in Derry, we can see they are working hand in hand in partnership to promote investment in jobs and co-operation in the region. Across every sector we can think of, we are breaking down the Border and working together, so we need to get on with this. I do not know why Micheál Martin has this issue with Irish reunification - why he thinks it will be tomorrow, the next day or the next day. Let us do it now. This motion is utterly sensible. Let us get it passed and let us get on with the work.”
“They came out on the streets on both sides of the Border in Donegal and Derry and now we have a cancer centre at Altnagelvin Hospital - North West Cancer Centre - providing radiotherapy services to cancer patients throughout the region. That is about common sense, working together and breaking down the impact of the Border for our people. In our third level sector, our universities and colleges have a memorandum of understanding. They have an educational cluster working together making sure they add value to each other, maximise the opportunity for our young people and build investment in jobs in our region. Our councils - Donegal County Council and Derry and Strabane District Council - have the North West City Region. They have been exemplars and leaders in working together in promoting the region. They market the region together.”
“This motion is utterly sensible. It is asking the Government to prepare now for Irish unity - to have the citizens' assemblies, a dedicated Minister for Irish unity and an Oireachtas committee to pursue these issues. It is about being responsible. It is an exciting challenge. What type of health service will we have? What type of education system will we have? How do we protect unionists within a united Ireland? All these matters must be dealt with now before we have a referendum. I want to point out positive examples that are happening right now in my region of the north west of Ireland. We had campaigners on both sides of the Border looking for cancer care close to their homes.”
“There are a number of barristers in this Dáil. One of them, our Minister for justice, has expressed his concerns about the attempts to undermine our justice system. It is important that we deal with that this week. There should be statements with questions to defend that system. Of course, the Minister for justice himself was attacked politically in this regard and he knows what it feels like.”
“However, time has been made available now. It has all of a sudden been created to do something that is unprecedented. There was no time for the crisis in fisheries and seafood this week, but there is time for an unprecedented move by the Government-----”
“It is not agreed. This is unprecedented. The Government is moving a motion of confidence, when there has been no formal submission of the motion of no confidence. We have not seen the text of the motion of no confidence, so it is unprecedented to make this move. I also add that at the Business Committee meeting on Thursday, I raised the unprecedented crisis in fisheries and seafood communities, which is unprecedented due to the forthcoming loss of quotas across the sectors. No time could be made available by the Government this afternoon.”
“We are uniting the people of this country in urban and rural communities; victims united in getting the same 100% redress. I will tell the Minister something now. The Government has countered the motion from Deputy Ward today that we have cosigned, but we are not going to go away. The Government may think that because 20,000 people were out on the streets of Dublin, this is all over now; it is not over. There are thousands of council houses in my home county, and there are thousands of private homes. The example has been given of the semi-detached block. Imagine taking down half a semi-detached block. There is no solution for apartments. The Government has abandoned huge numbers of people. They are not going to go away, and we are going to keep fighting until we get the same justice for every single victim across this State.”
“The Minister has got to be honest about that. The next offence then is that the Government states that it provides "100 per cent of eligible expenditure". The language of that is so dishonest. The Government designed a scheme that left people to the mercy of the market where builders can name their own price. The sums are not adding up. We have nothing resembling 100% redress. What we, in the Opposition, are saying today, and I want to echo the call of colleagues, is that every single victim should be treated the same whether they live in Dublin, Leinster, the west of Ireland or if they are in the defective apartments. Every single person and every single family who was failed by what happened in this State, by governments that abandoned them and left no regulation, should be given the same 100%. It could not be more simple.”
“The demolition is not properly reflected in the price. This is not a huge house, but when they added things up, they are going to be short by just shy of €200,000. They had six years left on their mortgage and were paying about €900 a month. Because the banks are not helping, they now have a 21-year mortgage and their repayments have doubled to €1,800. They will be well past pension age when they are finished paying. That is 100% redress. As colleagues have said, this is not about dividing urban from rural because all are victims of the failure of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael where there was self-regulation, light-touch regulation and no regulation of the construction industry and the manufacturing industry. There was none whatsoever. It is an absolute disaster that we are left in this situation. This is a redress scheme.”
“That is his language - the biggest redress scheme in the history of the State, at more than €3 billion. The Government countermotion now boasts it is the biggest in the world apparently. However, that is not true on the ground. As we know from the previous Attorney General, Paul Gallagher, as we know from the leaked letters, the scheme was always intended to exclude as many people as possible. That was always the plan and that is what is happening. Families who can pull together tens of thousands of euro are forced to do that and they are rebuilding their homes. However, tens of thousands of euro represents a good outcome. I recently met a family on site. Their beautiful home had to be demolished and they were traumatised. They told me that they do not get any money whatsoever for the foundations that have to be replaced.”
“I commend my colleague Deputy Charles Ward on putting together this motion. It speaks volumes that every single member of the Opposition accepted the invitation to co-sign the motion because it reflects the reality on the ground in our counties. My colleagues from other counties will speak soon. As someone from Donegal, I can say with absolute authority that this motion reflects the lived reality of our people. The Government countermotion shows it is absolutely tone-deaf to the reality in our communities. It is utterly offensive. The first phrase we see early in the Government's countermotion is that this is not a redress or compensation scheme. Who does it think it is fooling? Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach, boasted that this would be the biggest redress scheme in the history of the State.”
“There has to be a reaction to deal with the utter failure of the European Commission to deal with some of those most reckless actions in the history of fishing. It is unbelievably stupid and self-defeating to wreck a precious fishery like mackerel, which belongs to all of us, from the spawning grounds off the west of Ireland right up those Atlantic coasts. The level of greed and recklessness is off the scale. They have to pay a price. It has to stop. This has to lead to a change in our approach to the whole issue of the Common Fisheries Policy.”
“This has to be the moment where everything changes. This has to be a radical reset of the operation of the Common Fisheries Policy. The policy talks about climate change, sustainability and those communities closest to fisheries benefiting from them. We need to expose how all of that amounts to nothing. This is apparently four times worse than what happened to us after Brexit. Brexit was an absolute disaster for our fishing communities. That is why the Brexit adjustment reserve fund was put in place. We are going to need to fight for the maximum amount of fish but we also need to look at the whole Common Fisheries Policy and this relative stability whereby it stays the same every year and nothing changes. People are looking at our waters and we are just not getting our fair share of fish.”
“Those parties, whether corporations based in the European Union or in other countries, have to stop. They have to pay a price and we need to find a solution to save our industry.”