Delay to fishing sector plan criticised

FINE GAEL TD Tom Sheahan criticised the delay in providing an operational programme for the fishing industry.

“The provision of jobs in the industry around the coast is being choked,” he said.

Mr Sheahan said that Bord Iascaigh Mhara had returned funds to the exchequer because the programme had not been put in place by Minister of State for Agriculture Tony Killeen.

The Minister, he added, could not achieve this, despite being in office for two years and being “talked up” for a senior ministry.

He said there were 100 small and medium enterprises throughout the State looking for funding to create jobs.

Mr Killeen accused Mr Sheahan of not dealing in facts.

The matter of the timescale involved for the creation of the plan needed to be addressed to the European Commission, “if they were in a position to judge that and, in my view, they are not”.

The information, he said, was being collated over a period of time and funding had been provided to draw together material. Some people would argue, said Mr Killeen, that it should have been done a considerable time ago.

He added: “In any event, when I came into the job, I undertook the job of bringing it together.

“Deputy Sheahan would need to understand that the material to be collated, in many instances, relates to the migratory patterns of birds, for example. They won’t choose to arrive to convenience either Deputy Sheahan or myself.”