I was at a funeral recently. What happened there kind of summed matters up very easily. I was going along the queue and shaking hands with people. There was a fishermen at the end of the queue. What we said to me - even though I knew it, it shocked me to the core - was, "Thanks very much. Can I just say one thing to you? One day out - quota caught. Jesus, it's over." There was no point in me saying anything different. I shuddered when I heard those words. Hearing them was like getting a slap in the face with a shovel. The person to whom I refer said he was a fisherman; I knew he was anyway. The Irish fishing industry, or what is left of it, is being pushed to the wall. Every fisherman in the country knows that. These are the facts, and they are grim. We watched and listened as our Government and then the Minister handed over huge amounts of quota during Brexit. We watched as the French so-called negotiator, Barnier, did a massive deal for his country while our fishermen were left shocked at the deal they got, which was delivered to them on Christmas Eve. I warned the Taoiseach at the time, but he did not listen. In the Dáil in October 2025, I spelt out the warnings clearly. The scientific advice coming from ICES was not just a tap on the shoulder; it was a sledgehammer. ICES recommended a 70% cut in the mackerel quota and big cuts in blue whiting, boarfish, whitefish and haddock quotas. I said that if those cuts went through, it would make life economically impossible for pelagic operators. That was not speculation; it was what I stated outright in the Dáil at the time. While these cuts were landing like blows, the reality in places like Castletownbere was laid bare. Seventeen Irish boats were permanently decommissioned. Gone for good. Meanwhile, the roads into the town were being torn up by fleets of Spanish trucks hauling massive catches from the south west. Those catches were taken from waters in which Irish boats should be able to fish. This is a grotesque mockery. Cork County Council's job is to keep the roads in good condition for the Spanish trucks to take Irish fish out of our waters in Castletownbere. That is a sad fact. Go up to Castletownbere and you will see that parts of the road have collapsed several times. That is exactly what has happened. This is not the only issue I have highlighted. At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I said that more problems would arise. Other EU countries were getting fuel subsidies at the time for their fleets; Irish fishermen did not get these because we did not apply. Why bother? It is one thing on top of the other. There is no explanation or justification; just the simple fact that Ireland has not secured the same support for its fleet that other EU nations obtained for theirs. Then there is the weighing system. The current regime forces random weighing at the quayside, which leads to inaccurate numbers, especially for by-catches. Those wrong numbers feed into our already squeezed national quotas. This activity damages the demersal fleet. That is only one side of it. There are bigger, long-running issues that keep coming up. For example, I have been asking here about Rockall but nothing is happening. On the Hague preferences, we all know they are not worth a damn any more. There is Ireland's shrinking share of quota, despite the size and richness of our waters. These are not small details. I have repeatedly raised all these matters because they directly affect both jobs and survival in coastal towns. When the Dáil held a marathon fisheries debate, I and multiple other TDs outlined the crisis in detail. The message was the same: the situation is at breaking point. We highlighted EU quota cuts, the pressure on the whitefish fleet, the warnings about mackerel stock, the economic threat to processors and who can get raw materials. These all add up. The debate made it clear that the industry is not just struggling; it is fighting for its life. When people talk about investment in harbours or marine vision strategies, which are always welcome, fishermen are not fooled. None of that puts quota back in Irish hands. None of that reopens lost fisheries. None of that reverses years of policies and negotiations that have left Ireland with some of the richest waters in Europe, yet a fleet tied up to the pier watching foreign ships take the fish. That is the plain truth of it. Fishermen do not want spin, more committees or to hear yet another line about ongoing discussions. They want fair access to their own waters. They are currently being denied that. They want the same supports other EU fleets are getting. They want a weighing system that does not punish them for things they did not do. They want a Government that goes to Brussels and fights with the same determination as those of other countries. Every quota cut, closed fishery or decommissioned boat means another family put under pressure, another community hollowed out and another coastal town losing the very thing that has kept it alive for generations. The message has already been laid out in the Dáil, at the committees and in every report and debate. The Irish fishing industry - what is left of it - cannot take any more. Ireland holds some of the richest fishing grounds in Europe, yet the people living and working beside those waters are not experiencing the benefits. If the industry is to have a future, the concerns repeatedly raised in the Oireachtas must be met, and should have been met, with direct and meaningful solutions that protect livelihoods, sustain communities and ensure that Ireland's marine resources are managed in a fair and balanced way. One question that I asked after this recent hammer blow is whether there is going to be a legal review. The Hague preferences were there to protect us, but that did not happen. Is there going to be a legal review? Yes or no. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could answer that. What are these fishermen, who have spent their lives working on the sea, supposed to do? They are employing many people. If there is no fishing, there are no jobs. Most of these people are not qualified to do anything else but go to sea. What does the Minister of State suggest they do? I acknowledge that the Minister of State travels to coastal communities, which is always welcome, but what is he bringing with him? Did he go back to get more quota or are the big Danish fleets still stripping our waters?

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