JUNE 2008

Proposed retraining for fishermen

The Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries has agreed to investigate the proposal, from Deputy Joe McHugh, to have redundant fishermen retrained for the merchant navy. Joe McHugh says that redundant fishermen should be afforded every opportunity to retrain and that there is an obligation on the Government to provide the training necessary for fishermen to take up employment in other industries.

"The fishing industry has been on the brink of decimation over the past decade and highly trained fishermen are finding themselves reliant on social welfare. The decommissioning scheme, initiated by the Government, compensated the owners of boats yet the crews were left redundant with no financial package. The Government now has an opportunity to address this failure by encouraging these people to train for positions in the merchant navy. The fishing industry has been totally neglected in recent years and honest, hard working fishermen have been criminalised by the Department of the Marine. It is a crazy situation that a fisherman who fails to make a phone call upon entering a port can be brought to court on criminal charges the following morning. We are criminalising people in this country while in other EU countries they are dealt with through administrative sanctions."

Deputy McHugh also addressed the Dáil on this issue saying: "The fishing industry has lacked any real leadership in the last number of years and the Minister must show leadership. I would welcome this commitment from Minister Smith to investigate my proposal to retrain fishermen and hope that he would implement a training course as soon as possible.

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