Irish Examiner view: Support overdue

Members of the National Inshore Fishermen's Association, (from left): Seamus Cadogan, Anthony Dwyer, John Ball, and Michael Desmond. Picture: Denis Minihane

We are famed in this country for the richness and quality of the fisheries around our coast. And yet this is an industry which, for years, has seemingly ignored one of its most important elements — inshore fisheries.

There are some 1,700 inshore fishers in this country harvesting mussel, lobster, crab, shrimp, scallop, sprat and other species from our waters for what was a profitable income from home and export markets.

Critically and largely due to the pandemic and warfare, export markets have collapsed in recent years and the livelihoods of those making a living working from small inlets, piers, and harbours countrywide are now facing disaster.

Calls for subventions — or at very least Government action on fuel taxes and other expenditure — are becoming more forceful and strident. And rightfully so.

The small-boat fishers of this country have a tradition as rich as their catch, but they are being forced from the water by a lack of official support or action. Other sectors of the fishing industry enjoy great support. Why that backing is not also applied to vibrant and time-honoured inshore fisheries is a wrong that must be righted.