Ports Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-10
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Pat the Cope Gallagher (FF), Donegal

I am disappointed to learn that a business case has to be made to open Burtonport for a few hours. When looking at the map of Donegal, there is no designated port from Greencastle to Killybegs where fishermen can land on Saturdays. It is putting people's lives of risks and depriving them of accessing the Chinese market. It makes no sense at all. It makes no sense to have Burtonport linked to Greencastle, which is an hour and a half away, whereas it should be linked to Killybegs, which is 48 km and 45 minutes away.
As the Minister of State knows, fishery officers are not laid off if there are no landings in Killybegs during the summer. There are 20 fishery officers there and all they have to do is slip down the back road from Killybegs to Ardara to Burtonport, and they do not have to come. There is an insinuation that a fishery officer has to be there every time a vessel is landed.
I will pose the question at a later stage and I want the details. Is there a fishery officer at every port when fish are being landed? There is not. I am around long around to know that. There is somebody in the Minister of State's Department or in the SFPA who is being difficult. They are being intransigent about this. They are discriminating against the people I represent. I strongly believe that this must be resolved soon rather than later.
I think I am the only one left in this House from the class of 1981. I am here all of these years and I never had to come in to make a case like this for something that is so simple. We talk about money; I understand if the SFPA is coming to make a case to the fisheries committee. When its officials attend, they have to spend some money in preparing to come there and the amount of money we are talking is peanuts.
A predecessor of the Minister of State's was able to designate ports in north Donegal but ignored west Donegal for some reason. To leave all of that area without a designated port on Saturdays deprives fishermen of going into that lucrative market.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-10