Editorial Comment
Cormac Burke, IFSA
In a podcast interview with Tom MacSweeney, the marine minister accepts that morale is low in the fishing industry….
It is ironic that the McConalogue blames the depressed state of the industry on many things, pretty much everything aside from his own dismal performance as fisheries minister and his failure to:
* give Irish fishermen the same fuel subsidy that all other EU fishing nations are receiving;
* ensure that at least a portion of the EU Brexit BAR money was handed out to fishermen in actual compensation cash (as many other EU nations did) and instead instigated several ‘schemes’ that in reality were not any form of compensation;
* refuse to challenge the EU on their ‘deals’ with non EU nations to fish in Irish waters while EU member states other than Ireland benefit from the arrangement;
* avoid taking responsibility for the dismal state and continuing free fall of ALL sectors, pelagic, demersal and inshore, since his appointment as minister;
* listen and take on board the opinion and advice of industry representative groups (as ministers in other sectors do) and instead is more focused on his personal image and berating them if they dare to complain in public regarding his poor handling of affairs - - and then have the cheek to go on national media talking about the ‘constructive communication relationship’ he has with the industry.
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It seems clear that with an election looming in the not-too-distant future and McConalogue’s seat in widely predicted jeopardy, this is a poor attempt to show some humility and shrugging shoulders saying that things aren’t all his fault - - but come election time the industry will sharply remember the arrogance of a man who responded to pleas for help from fishermen with “if you don’t like what you’re hearing then you’re free to leave the room….”
The podcast is available at:
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