00:00We have some of the richest fishing waters in Europe, if not the world, surrounding us.
00:05We have territorial waters that are seven times our own land mass.
00:11I mean, if all of that was put together, as pointed out in recent days to me,
00:15we would be one of the biggest countries in the European Union.
00:18So this is a huge resource that we have.
00:2290% of the people in that survey said that they feel that the industry has declined over the last 10 years.
00:34Not one person, not one respondent, because they had options, said that the industry had significantly improved over 10 years.
00:43That's damning.
00:4590% said that they would not encourage their children to continue in what is a family.
00:50You know, this is intergenerational, handed down.
00:53It's a beautiful documentary, Tarek Nafariga.
00:56It was on RT recently.
00:57Beautiful documentary, but also tragic.
01:00And you see this noble tradition at the heart of Irish culture that has just been allowed to wither.
01:08So we have collectively failed as a country to get the full resource.
01:13And the challenge is we have to do so much better.
01:15So when you say that, you know, when we go to Europe and, you know, when we ask, for example, in bluefin tuna, somebody else has to give it up.
01:25Well, somebody else shouldn't have got it in the first place.
01:27You know, we have to have those honest conversations.
01:30You know, these are our territorial waters.
01:32We have one of the most lucrative fish in the world that gets fattened in our waters and, you know, as a predator fish.
01:43And then, you know, you have armada of Japanese vessels catching them outside the 200 mile limits.
01:52You know, and our guys can only just catch and release.
01:56We can look at it.
01:56We can lift it.
01:57But it has to get sent back.
01:59It's just derisory stuff, you know.
02:02And these are the conversations we need to have.
02:04And I do think that European people, whatever country they are, they're decent just like us.
02:11They have a sense of fairness just like us.
02:13They know what's fair and what's unfair.
02:15And if we look at we have 12% of European waters, we get less than 6% of the fish.
02:21So, you know, we have to have a conversation about, you know, we've had to decommission our fleet.
02:27Other countries are investing in their fleet right now.
02:30You know, we have to have a conversation, and we touched on this earlier today in the committee.
02:34You know, we have countries like Iceland, Norway, the pharaohs.
02:38And to be clear, you know, I have huge admiration for the people of those countries in many ways.
02:43And the seafood industry that has been built in Norway, huge.
02:47I'm an admirer of the Norwegian people.
02:49But this is wrong.
02:52You know, they have not followed the science.
02:55They have overfished mackerel.
02:56And remember, mackerel is a migratory species.
02:59Mackerel spawns off the west coast of Ireland.
03:02And it works its way, you know, up that Atlantic.
03:05So this is a shared resource.
03:07It doesn't belong to any one country.
03:08It's a shared resource, precious resource.
03:10And one set of people whose country and territory, you know, is part of that collective space, collective waters, overfished.
03:21They ignored the science.
03:24You know, laws don't work unless everybody follows them equally.
03:27But what happened here is the lawbreakers, and they are lawbreakers, they were rewarded.
03:32They were rewarded with trade deals with the European Union.
03:36So the European Union was telling our Irish communities, for God's sake, I mean, we have a young girl, you know, here in Ireland who had to go to Europe about the fact she couldn't fish pollock anymore.
03:47And that's really contested.
03:51But our people were forced, our inshore, our islands people were forced.
03:55No, it's zero catch for pollock, you know.
03:57You know that they're obviously having to fish for crab, for lobster.
04:01Pollock was vital as part of that, you know, that system of fish that they catch throughout the year.
04:07So they're having to apply by the rules, suffer that setback.
04:11But when it comes to Norway, Iceland, pharaohs, and a huge investment from European member states like Holland, you know, Holland has, these Dutch multinationals have put huge money into those states, a member of the European Union, to recklessly overfish, and no price to pay.
04:30So, you know, like this is an injustice.
04:32These are the conversations we need to have at European level.
04:35So we have to have a sense, I suppose, you know, because the word patriotism is bandied around these days and it's abused, right?
04:43To me, it's about looking at every other country.
04:46Nobody's better than us and nobody's worse than us.
04:49You know, we're all equal here.
04:50And what we're asking is a fair share of the fish in our waters and a government that stands by our people.
04:55And, Minister, I wish you well on that.
04:57And if you take that path, you'll have no criticism from me.
