Fishing Industry
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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Michael Collins (II), Cork South-West

The Minister of State indicated that there have been quota reductions across the board, but Irish fishermen have been hit with a 70% cut - the greatest of all. Basically, that is sending them home. People have massive debts having paid for trawlers. They are paying back bank loans they got in order that they might have the best trawlers available to allow them to compete. I am not referring to competing with super-trawlers from Norway, Spain and other countries that are stealing our fish. However, they bought those boats to allow them to compete in some way and to be safe out in our waters. This is a terrible infliction on them.
When is the task force being set up? Has it held any meetings yet? As far as I am concerned, this is an urgent crisis that has, very unfairly, been foisted on Irish fishermen. It is similar to what happened with Brexit, decommissioning and all of that. I hope to God that the task force is not being set up to talk about further decommissioning, because if it is, the Irish fleet will be wiped out completely. When is the task force going to be set up? What bodies will be represented on it? When will its first meeting be held? What will its role be in the context of bringing fishing back to the top of the agenda?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29