Peadar Tóibín
Meath West · Aontú · Ireland
“Lonely Planet. It did a review of Dublin and stated, "Once Dublin’s grand boulevard, O'Connell St has struggled with decline". It stated that vacant buildings, derelict upper floors and long-stalled redevelopments leave this part looking neglected while retail has shifted elsewhere and been replaced by fast food shops that dilute its char…”
“The Irish people are a generous and decent people and have been over the past number of years, with the provision of supports to people from Ukraine who are fleeing the war. This is right and just. The war unleashed on Ukraine is absolutely wrong. Aontú will support the reduction in the rate of payment under the scheme.”
“I am very disappointed to see that the Government, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party, the Green Party and People Before Profit will vote against an amendment that wants to means test the payment, as an amendment also did on the previous occasion, and put it on a level footing with other housing assistance payments.”
“Landlords are rational and they will make economic decisions to best suit themselves. Landlords have been more inclined to take on Ukrainian tenants over Irish tenants in recent years. This system is discriminatory. It gives an advantage to guests in the country over the people who have lived here for most of their lives.”
“Anyone who sat the leaving certificate economics paper just a few weeks ago will know that demand also has a role. It determines what rents are, the price of houses, etc. It is physics and maths and not ideology. We need to get to a situation where we equalise supply with demand.”
“A global study by TomTom indicated that it is the 38th most congested city globally, behind cities such as London, Toronto and Rome. The task force indicated that the Cork Luas system would be built. That Luas system is in planning and that planning is taking a long while.”
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“One of my biggest frustrations and that of Aontú, in this Dáil and the previous one, is the waste of taxpayers' money and the lack of proper investigations and accountability. The Galway 2020 situation is an example of that. The difficulty with regard to waste is that it often becomes a crisis for a couple of weeks until the media cycle moves on and people forget about it. In the context of Exchequer funding to Galway 2020 and the Government’s decision for that not to exceed 50%, the Comptroller and Auditor General stated that the decision was not adhered to and that funding went far beyond that. He also said the disclosure of information was not forthcoming. Has there been a proper investigation into what happened with Galway 2020?”
“Now we will see another nine months pass without a decision being made on their experience. Theirs is probably the only sector of society which should get an income but whose income is decided on a random basis. It would be great to crystallise the decision as soon as possible.”
“Aontú has supported the scheme from the outset. The reason we have done so is that, unfortunately, poverty and the arts are often synonymous. People who work in the arts probably have the most precarious work that exists in the country. Their lived experience is often the direct opposite of people's understanding of the glamour of the arts. The difficulty I have with this is that we have a project that has been going on for three years and we still do not have a decision on it from the Government. Absolutely we need time to evaluate and to make a decision but I have been long enough around here to have noticed that difficult decisions are often kicked down the road. I have a worry that only one quarter of the people who need this particular payment are in receipt of it.”
“I ask the Minister that any information he currently has on the impact of the fund on the creativity of the 2,000 artists who are in receipt of it, but also any of the qualitative analysis of the control group, be given to the Opposition as soon as possible or published in order that we can understand the benefits better.”
“One of the difficulties is that for many, in reality, being an artist is synonymous with poverty. While now and again on the news or in the newspapers we see people who do economically well from their art, they are a tiny minority of that group. Historically, we know of artists who died as paupers only to have their art appreciated after their deaths. It is important that there is an understanding of the value of the work artists do in reflecting back to society who we are and what we are about. There should be space given for that cohort of individuals to be able to create and produce their work.”
“It is worrisome that there is no evidence as yet - maybe it is the Minister's plan - that the scheme will be expanded to the other 6,000 people who have applied for this. There are few income supports that are given at random to a small sample of the people who need them. Most income supports are given to everybody who needs them.”
“First of all, it is interesting that we do not know the net cost. We know the cost but many of these recipients were on social welfare previously. I ask the Minister to speak to the other aspect of this, namely, the impact it is having on the creative sector at present. Much of the study, and the information, has been on the 2,000 recipients but there is a control group of 6,000 other individuals who applied for this income. I would be interested to know how those in the control group are experiencing being an artist in an economically difficult situation. If that information was available to the Opposition, it would be an important part of the discussion and the development of this fund.”
“I was sorry to hear about the Minister's ill health recently and I wish him the best of luck with it in future too. The basic income for the arts scheme is an initiative we in Aontú have supported for many years. Many artists live in poverty and deprivation and have lives full of economic anxiety. The basic income for the arts scheme is designed to reduce that deprivation and to help artists to create. Will the scheme be expanded in a manner that will encompass more than the current 2,000 recipients of this income?”
“Set up Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil cumanns in the North. In that scenario, stand in local elections. If a small party like us can do that, surely a well-funded organisation like the Minister of State's party can too.”
“I believe that the narrow self-interests of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do not want an all-Ireland vote on a presidential election, because they do not want 700,000 Northern nationalists voting in a presidential election, because they fear that it could hand the seat over to a Sinn Féin candidate in this election and maybe others. Withholding an election because you do not like the result is profoundly undemocratic and profoundly wrong. You should never ever treat the right to a franchise in that manner. I do not want a Sinn Féin President either. I am a member of Aontú. We are an all-Ireland political party. The SDLP also garners many nationalist votes in the North. If you really want to stop Northern nationalists from voting for Sinn Féin in a presidential election, organise in the North.”
“The power is in this Chamber and in the ballot boxes throughout the Twenty-six Counties. The Government, in its inaction, is withholding the rights of 700,000 citizens in the North. One of the things I have noticed in this Chamber is that historically one of the best ways for a Minister to say “No” has been to say “Yes” and do nothing about it. That is what is happening in this country. We have opinion polls in the South indicating the majority are in favour of a united Ireland. A vote in Stormont indicated a majority of MLAs support this particular project. Practically every political party in Leinster House has stated in their manifestos that they are in support of this. Why is this not happening? I will tell you why it is not happening and I will be honest with the Minister of State about this.”
“Let us imagine the joy Irish citizens in the North of Ireland would experience if, for the first time since 1918, they were able to vote in a democratic expression of self-determination on an equal basis with those in the rest of the country. The Minister of State has potentially a legacy to leave regarding that historic event if he grasps this. This is not a zero-sum situation. It is not the case that for nationalists or republicans to achieve a right, a right has to be taken away from unionists or loyalists. This removes no rights from our unionist brothers and sisters in the North. The power to change this is not in Westminster. We do not have to go with a begging bowl to persuade the British Government. The power to change is not in Stormont, and we do not have to try to change the views of the DUP or UUP to achieve this objective.”
“I thank Deputies Brian Stanley and Catherine Connolly for their flexibility on speaking slots. I am delighted to speak on the motion. Often, we focus on the urgent issues, which are very important for sure, but forget about the important issues that pertain to this country and its development. Shockingly, an Irish citizen in the North can stand for election as President, campaign for election and win the election but is prohibited from voting in it. That is incredible. An Irish citizen living in the North with an Irish passport, recognised by the Good Friday Agreement, is not allowed by this State to vote in a presidential election. That is very sad and dangerous. It means we have a two-tier situation. It is deeply undemocratic and against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.”
“In fairness, Chair, that is not fair. A lot of us were waiting here for questions and the Taoiseach took an inordinate amount of time to whitter on with those answers. Do the same rules not apply to the Taoiseach as apply to everybody else in this House?”
“The reason I think the Tánaiste is misleading the people is that he has previous on this. Right up to the jaws of the last general election, the Government was determined to give the impression to the people of Ireland that 40,000 homes would be built that year. As soon as that election was finished, the information became very clear and that statement from the Government, a number of senior Ministers and the Taoiseach himself was wrong. It is important the Tánaiste comes clean with people on this. This housing crisis is far too serious for misinformation. People need to know what is happening in this country.”
“We will get to the homeless one. The Tánaiste is understating his figures. The official figures are understated by a population of 16,676. That is extraordinary. Either that is incompetence and an inability to count the number of people who are on waiting lists at the moment-----”
“When the Tánaiste talks about increases in the building of houses and increases in the building of social homes, he is talking about increases from a floor of the worst housing collapse in the history of the State. He is talking about a figure of literally zero in terms of those increases. On getting these figures wrong and duplications, you cannot be on two social housing waiting lists simultaneously. You cannot.”
“Is it the case that in the middle of a Government freefall in terms of housing, it is misleading the general public on the number of people who are on housing waiting lists and the number who are homeless? Can we trust a word out of the Government's mouth in terms of these figures?”
“Its ability to count the number of people on housing waiting lists at the moment is out by the population of Tullamore. That is an incredible situation. We also "FOI'd" local authorities on the number of local authority homes that are empty. In the jaws of the worst housing crisis in the history of the State, there are 3,779 council-owned homes empty. Having empty homes in the middle of a housing crisis is akin to exporting food in the middle of the Famine. It is wrong. The fact of the matter is that we are paying nearly €600 million to house people in RAS and HAP homes, while so many local authority homes are empty. I mentioned the Government and competence previously in relation to this, but perhaps I am giving it too much credit.”
“The data I have received through these FOI requests fully contradict the Government's information. We asked local authorities, first, the number of homeless people in the State. Their figure is that 16,472 people are currently homeless. When we asked the Government for the homeless figure, we were told there are 15,580 homeless people. The Government is currently understating the number of homeless people in the State by 892. The Government's ability to count the number of homeless people is out by nearly 1,000. We also sent an FOI to every local authority in the country to find out how many people are on housing waiting lists. The councils told us that there are 75,000 people currently on housing waiting lists. The official Government figure is 58,824. Here again, the Government is undercounting and understating the number by 16,000.”
“Today marks another dark day for the Government's housing record. The original target for 2025 of 41,000 new builds has been binned. The Minister, Deputy Browne, has cut the official target by 20%, stating that possibly only 34,000 homes will be built this year. Last year, only 30,000 homes were built, again far short of the Government's target of 40,000. This Government is in reverse in terms of the biggest crisis happening in this country. The promise in the programme for Government is that 300,000 homes would be built. Right now, the Government is going to meet half of that figure, based on the number of houses currently being built. I have submitted freedom of information, FOI, requests to every single local authority in the country, in order to understand the scale of the crisis.”
“Representatives from Uisce Éireann were before the committee last week. I asked them how long it would take to fill the gaps in the water system that are preventing houses being built. They said they will not have those gaps filled until 2050, which is incredible. I asked the representatives of An Bord Pleanála how long it takes on average to turn around an application for planning permission. They said they did not know and could not answer. I speak to builders who say it takes more than a year to turn around an application. We have 4,000 empty local authority homes. It is taking eight months to turn them around. We have 160,000 empty homes, yet the grants to refurbish them are taking forever. The Government is not doing its job. It is damaging the housing sector. It needs to cop on.”
“The Government wants to increase market activity and the only way it can see to increase market activity is to increase rents. Rents are €2,000 per month on average for a new rental agreement. That is already excessive, damaging and too high. At the core of the project is to increase rents further. That is a phenomenal so-called solution from a Government that has been involved in the housing crisis for so long. One of the ways market activity could be increased would be to decrease VAT, to zero rate VAT for a three- or five-year period. That would take €50,000 off the price of a house. It would bring in a lot of the builders who are not currently building. It would make it cheaper to build homes. It would increase market activity and make it easier for families to build.”
“This shows another flip flop in terms of the Government's approach to this. Not all people will be covered by this. There will be many people who have cancer, mothers who are pregnant and about to give birth and 80-year-old people living in tenancies who will not be covered by elements of the no-fault eviction. No doubt, some profit-motivated landlords will look to put pressure on tenants to push them out so they can increase rents. There are good and bad landlords, and good and bad tenants but this particular Bill will incentivise the bad landlords to profiteer. We support the rolling out of these rent caps to the counties that were previously not covered. However, the whole centre part of the plan is to increase rents. That is the design of it. The Taoiseach said so openly.”
“We are under so much pressure in terms of the housing crisis that we need professionalism, well thought out plans and a Government that knows what it is doing. This level of instability within the Government is in itself a cause to stop and slow down the building of homes throughout the country. I believe there are serious flaws in relation to this. There are flaws in terms of what is happening to students. It is wrong that students are going to have to go back to tenancies on an annual basis and see those rents racked up. In regard to the no-fault eviction element of this, there is a positive in that up to half the tenants will be covered. However, it strikes me as incredible that the Government is now voting for no-fault evictions when it basically threw Neasa Hourigan out of government for doing the same thing in the last Government.”
“The Government chopped and changed its plans on a daily basis. It announced the plans for next March. Landlords listening to that confusion from the Ministers concluded that they could evict their tenants now, rack up the rents before this happens and significantly increase their levels of profit. I have no doubt that the statistics will show that in this past week landlords started to move in that direction, because of the Governments plan. Then the Government said it had planned all along to bring in this legislation this week. There was no time made available for this. To make time available, the statements on nursing homes had to be cancelled. It was complete confusion again in the Government's approach to this. The Government's approach feels like amateur hour. It is not good enough by half.”
“The past ten days have been a time of deep frustration and nearly depression among people. The omnishambles of the Government's approach to the RPZs in the past ten days has really frustrated people at home. Fianna Fáil obviously has a history in terms of the housing crisis. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, was a Minister in the Government that created the first bubble, a Minister in the Government that crashed housing prices around the country and now he is the Taoiseach who has led to the big spike in house prices and rents again. That incompetence has nearly been crystallised into the past ten days. There has been confusion, chaos and contradiction from the Minister and from the Government. The story about the changes in the rent pressure zones broke last week before the Cabinet had even discussed the issue.”
“If we really want to get a hold of the lack of public service and infrastructure in this country, there will have to be a tackling of the regulatory and the bureaucratic nightmare involved in building absolutely anything here, from the national children's hospital to metro north. If there is one footprint the Minister can leave behind him, it is tackling that.”
“The fact that the Spaniards were able to build about 35 miles of metro in Madrid for €2.8 billion and we have spent €300 million without putting a shovel in the ground is a real problem. Look at the bureaucratic and regulatory nightmare we are in. The Navan to Dublin rail line was built in 1852 with picks and shovels in three years. The Department will spend more time on a route selection for this line. It will spend more time than the actual complete build just for the route selection. The railway order will take at least one or two years. The planning application will take at least three years. Therefore, before it builds one foot of rail line in County Meath, it will spend three times the amount of time in the preparation that it took to build it with picks and shovels in the 1850s.”
“There is, however, also a human cost that nobody is quantifying, and this is where parents do not get to see their kids from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.. A good deal of the anxiety happening among children relates to the fact that they have no access to their parents for the majority of the day because their parents are forced to commute such long distances over such long periods. Nobody is analysing that cost. Dublin is the most congested city in the EU. The time and labour costs involved in sitting in traffic are higher than in any other European country. The biggest weakness this Government has is in the delivery of significant infrastructure. Some €300 million spent on metro north and not a shovel put in the ground is a serious problem. If the Minister wants to make a difference, this is what he will have to tackle in terms of the delivery.”
“I genuinely do. Now, I will say that there are hundreds of thousands of people in this country living in a commuter hell. These are people with little or no access to public transport who are forced to use cars every day and who spend maybe two or three hours getting to work back and forth. Meath is a prime example. Meath is the biggest commuter county in the country. The majority of people in Meath leave the county to go to work every day. That happens in no other county in the country. Some 80,000 people in Meath are forced to use their cars daily. Navan is the biggest town in the country without a rail line. For the majority of the people in question, there is a real cost to this. There is the financial cost, namely the car, the second car, the tolls, the fuel, the insurance, etc. It adds up to thousands of euro a year.”
“If the house price increases continue, that will hurt families. This is a tax which is ignorant of the amount of income that comes into families' pockets and will add further to the pressure on families. The other side of this coin is what value we get. I live in a great county, but it has seen its population radically increase. When my father was young, 60,000 people lived in Meath. When I was young, 100,000 people were living in Meath and now 250,000 people are living in Meath. With practically every central government investment into local authority delivery and provision, the Government has not kept up with population growth. As a result Meath County Council has one of the lowest incomes per capita of any local authority in the country and that is significantly hurting spending at the moment.”
“The Government took in billions of euro in VAT on the cost of construction. The Minister should consider reducing VAT on the cost of the construction, first, to reduce the price of houses and second, to stimulate market activity. That would do so in a manner that does not hurt people through increased prices or increased rentals in the future. It would have a similar effect that it is trying to get with its new rent-pressure zones at the moment. The Government does have its hands on the levers of certain cost increases. The Government is a source of inflation for families and this is another source of inflation. I understand that its objective here is to try to ameliorate the costs that would have accrued to families if it did not touch those bands. However, the fact is there will be an increased cost coming on families in the future.”
“There is enormous strain coming on families due to grocery inflation and other inflation. I will admit that much the inflation that is happening is external to the Government. The Government does not have its hands on the levers of much of the inflation that families are experiencing. However, it has a direct influence on some of that inflation. Last year the Government took in €4.1 billion in fuel taxes, the highest fuel tax take ever in the jaws of a cost-of-living crisis, which is incredible. Normally the instinct would be to reduce the fuel taxes when people are hurting so much. Carbon taxes now surpass €1 billion and according to the Government's policy, are set to continue increasing for the next five years. The M50 tolls have taken €2.2 billion since 2008. That is another lever in the Government's hands.”
“Grocery price increases are quite incredible. The cost of groceries for families has increased by a third since 2018 and that trajectory is continuing. Even since April, we have seen a marked increase in normal staples, such as chicken. The CSO's price watch monitoring indicated that 1 kg of chicken breasts could be bought in April for €5 and that is costing families €11 at the moment. The price of a pound of butter is now €5. In March the cost of a pound of butter went up by 76 cent. All that grocery inflation can be added to rental inflation at the moment. The cost of a new rental lease is now about €2,000 on average, which is an amazing price. Families are put to the pin of their collar. Families are hurting. Families are curtailing their activities.”
“I have no doubt that the Government will also need to reset the bands in another number of years because the increase in house prices is continuing at such a trajectory that that disconnect will remain embedded within the system. That is a basic fault and problem with the property tax at the moment. The other element in this is that the cost-of-living crisis is really hurting families at the moment. We have not had a proper debate about the cost-of-living crisis since the general election and the start of this Dáil. It is getting worse at the moment. People will have seen that the cost of petrol and diesel has started to creep up significantly. That is being pushed by the war between Israel and Iran. If Iran follows through with its threat to stop traffic going through the Straits of Hormuz, fuel prices will spiral in the next while.”
“No matter what tax people pay, whether it is income tax, property tax or VAT, it all comes from people's pockets. Over the last couple of hundred years we have decided that progressive taxes are the best idea because the amount of tax people pay is based on the amount of income they have. However, the problem with property tax is that it is not progressive; it is completely ignorant of the level of income that comes into a family. For sure, there are significant proportions of the population where the property is valued at roughly the same proportion as income coming into the house, but there are major disparities to it. If we are honest, this Bill admits that the value of the property is completely disconnected from the incomes coming into people's homes which is why the bands need to be reset.”
“The local property tax was introduced by Fine Gael and Labour to fill a massive hole in the budget that was created by Fianna Fáil crashing the economy during the banking crisis. The local property tax is in many ways a child of the economic catastrophe which was caused by the Fianna Fáil-led Government at that time. It was a Fine Gael and Labour austerity tool, which was introduced to find other ways of taking money out of people's pockets at a time when the country was absolutely broke. It was designed to fill a gap that was created by the withdrawal of central government funding to local authorities. In fact, it was not promised new income for local authorities but just a straight swap of a local government grant that was given by central government over periods of time. All tax comes from people's pockets.”
“This would be the first and most significant increase in the franchise for Irish self-determination in 100 years. I urge parties to support the Bill.”
“Both are regional political parties and do not have representatives or organisations operating in the North of Ireland. If they want to get over that particular hurdle, I would encourage Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to open up cumanns and to give Irish citizens in the North of Ireland the right to be members of their political parties and to function in them. It should not be the case that we do not allow for an election to happen because perhaps we will not like the result of it. That is a profoundly undemocratic action to take. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, does have the potential to create a significant legacy for himself by taking this Bill off Aontú, making it a Government Bill and supporting it at the earliest opportunity.”
“On foot of Aontú announcing this particular Bill, Sinn Féin proposed a motion in Stormont calling for the same objective. I welcome that. The motion was carried by a majority of MLAs in the North. That is significant. The majority of parties here say they support it; the majority of MLAs in the North say they support it and opinion polls say the majority of people in this jurisdiction support it. We really need to make sure that we are in step and in sync with the people. The reason it is not happening is because of narrow political self-interest. Some parties are putting narrow self-interest ahead of bigger objectives. It has been said that perhaps Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael do not want to see 700,000 Northern nationalists voting in a Presidential election, potentially because they do not function in the North of Ireland.”
“If one is held, it would then be up to the people of Ireland to make a decision. Right now, we are withholding the right to vote from Irish citizens in the North of Ireland - some 700,000 Irish citizens, which is quite incredible. Opinion polls show that there is support for this. Opinion polls in the South show there is support for a united Ireland. Opinion polls in the North of Ireland show that support for remaining within the Union and a united Ireland are quite close at the moment. This Bill does not even go as far as trying to look for a united Ireland, but it is a real and practical step towards the democratic self-determination of this country. It is not an unusual proposal: many other European countries have the same policy. France and Poland allow citizens to vote who are not resident in their particular jurisdiction.”
“It would be a phenomenal opportunity for the people of the North of Ireland to be able to do that. This is not a zero-sum Bill. Sometimes, when we talk about constitutional issues, it feels like we are giving rights to one person and taking them away from another. This Bill would take no rights at all away from our unionist brothers and sisters in the North of Ireland. Most political parties have stated, at some stage, that they support this project, and the citizens' assembly voted in favour of it. What is stopping us from doing this? It is not up to Westminster to make this decision. Westminster does not have a say and neither does Stormont. The only body that has a say over whether or not this progresses is this House, first and foremost. We have a say as to whether a constitutional referendum should take place.”
“It is not likely that we will be able to get a referendum done and dusted before that happens, but it could be possible to hold a referendum on the day of the presidential election in order to make sure that all subsequent presidential elections will be reflective of the views all citizens in Ireland, North and South. Incredibly and shockingly, Irish citizens in the North of Ireland can stand in and win a presidential election and they can be President of Ireland, but they still cannot vote in presidential elections. Mary McAleese was a very strong example of that contradiction that lies at the heart of our political system in this regard. Imagine the sheer joy that would exist among Northern nationalists if they could share equally in the democratic process of this country for the very first time since 1918.”
“Tairgim: Go gceadófar go dtabharfar isteach Bille dá ngairtear Acht chun an Bunreacht a leasú. I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Constitution. I am delighted to introduce this Bill. The purpose of this Aontú Bill is to ensure that all adult citizens living in Ireland, North and South, will be entitled to vote in presidential elections. This is a really important Bill. It is a great opportunity for the House to be able to make this change. I encourage all the political parties to get behind it in a cross-party manner. The Bill is also important because we have a presidential election coming up very shortly, namely in October.”
“He has been left to hang with no support from the State after serving it in a difficult situation. Will the Taoiseach make sure that he has an income until his protected disclosure case is heard?”
“Tom McHugh was the assistant chief officer of the A-Block in Portlaoise Prison. The block houses the most dangerous criminals in the State. He was asked to investigate drug trafficking in the prison. He carried out his job and reported the information to the management. One morning, a prisoner, who was an enforcer for a well known criminal gang and was well known for knife crime, told the governor that three staff approached him and asked him to cut Tom McHugh up. The Naughton report vindicated that particular situation, but since then Tom has been living in fear. He has undergone a number of near life-threatening attacks and has received threats on a near daily basis. He is off sick and is unable to work. He is facing poverty. He has made a protected disclosure.”
“What is happening would be completely laughable if it were not so costly. Looking at sole, some fishing boats can catch only maybe a box a month while Belgium has the vast majority of the quota here in Ireland. It is beyond belief. It is farcical that fishermen and fisherwomen are thrown about their boats in the heaviest of weather and made do all this work but are treated differently from other fleets fishing in Irish waters. They are made to weigh on the pier and then weigh in the factory 200 yd up the road as well. I wish the Minister of State luck in his role, but Ireland has been cursed with absolutely pathetic representation in the European Union. We have not been fighting our corner. The other countries are making fun of us for the lack of quota we have in our own waters.”
“The trawler was subject to a controlled weighing on the pier as part of that process. The monitoring process made the fish unfit for human consumption and the fish had to be sold for animal meal. That fish are being weighed at piers is nonsense and is damaging the sector. The crisis is so profound that Irish fishers are now changing their boats' Irish flags for Spanish flags in order that they can increase their quota in their own country. Meanwhile, we see 20 to 50 trucks of Irish fish leave the country per week, and many of them are unchecked. I will put this in perspective. As regards monkfish, France has 59% of the quota in Irish waters; Ireland has 7% of the quota. In haddock, Ireland has only 22% of the quota; France has 67% of the quota. In hake, Ireland has 6% of the quota; France has 45% of the quota.”
“Irish fishermen have seen their sector gutted in recent years. Irish fishing rights have been handed, lock, stock and barrel, to other countries. Many countries are doing far better out of Irish waters than Irish fishermen. According to departmental projections, the Irish coastal share of fish will shrink by approximately 15% in the coming six years. The average reduction throughout the rest of Europe is 9.83%. Ireland's reduction significantly surpasses the loss of other countries. Indeed, Ireland has the highest loss along with Germany. What does that say about the ability of Irish Ministers to work on behalf of Irish fishermen in Europe? It is an incredible situation at the moment. Earlier this year, a trawler came into Killybegs with 750 tonnes of blue whiting that had been caught.”