‘Rural Ireland and its survival should be at the top of the next election agenda’
TRAWLER owner Edward Sheehan’s passion for the fishing industry is indisputable.
Coming into his 30th year in the business, the apparent meddling of Governments and the EU has drawn his wrath.
“Why? Because with overzealous regulations, criminalisation and restrictions imposed by the Irish Government, fishing has become the most unsociable job on earth,” he insists.
Without having to labour the point, he noted: “In the last four years, only two young men of 18 years have joined the Castletownbere fleet.”
Significantly, Castletownbere is the country’s premier white fish landings port and boasts the second largest fleet in the country after Killybegs.
“It may suit the Government to have rural Ireland as a holiday haven, a weekend destination for people from the capital, somewhere they can retreat to undisturbed. But that is not what rural Ireland means to those that live there, work there and rear their families there,” he says.
“I believe rural Ireland and its survival should be put at the top of the next election agenda. As far as I’m concerned, the two main indigenous industries in this country - agriculture and fishing - face extinction but remain low on this Government’s priority list.”
Known to his colleagues as Ebby, Mr Sheehan said the recently-published Rural Ireland 2025 Report, which recommended the establishment of a Rural Policy Implementation Group, was a wake-up call for the Government.
“The expert report group warned of the whittling down of farm and rural families by tens of thousands and that will have catastrophic repercussions for every port on the western seaboard, from Killybegs to Rossaveal, Dingle to Castletownbere.
“The Government is paying no more than lip service to fishing and has forsaken the industry totally.
“What young man, who relies on a fish catch as part of his income, wants to go to sea when quotas are constantly reduced; faces the daily attention of boardings by naval patrol boats and the risk of detentions or having catches confiscated as they arrive ashore because of an oversight in a logbook?
“As the red tape increases, bombarding the industry with more and more regulations, the chances of attracting new blood onto the trawlers diminishes.
“Young people do not want to risk life and limb in a job becoming increasingly more unattractive. Families, with a long tradition of fishing in their blood, are withdrawing from the industry,” he claims.
“Yearly, industry representatives make submissions to the Government seeking a daily tax-free allowance for days at sea that is available to every other mariner but the fishermen’s arguments seems to hold no sway with successive finance ministers.”
Despite the constant setbacks, Mr Sheehan, who owns two trawlers and employs 22 people, still possesses an optimistic outlook for the industry.
“There is a sustainable future for fishing if issues like conservation - which would be in every fisherman’s interests - is conducted in consultation with the industry. We need conservation measures that are realistic and not ones brought about through pressure from non-fishing groups or bureaucrats that would not know one end of a fishing boat from the other.
“There is no point in the Government announcing schemes for fleet renewal or improvements if there is no access to the raw product and no incentive for young people to maintain the tradition.
“Now is the time for the Government to reward enterprise and hard work and not penalise small communities or industries that remain the backbone of rural Ireland.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
