Gerard P. Craughwell Urges Drones and Naval Boost for Fisheries

Thank you very much, Lascar. Look, Minister, you're welcome to the House. I think this is the first time I've addressed you in this House since your elevation, so congratulations on that. I'd like to start off on a positive note. So, having been with you among coastal communities, I do believe that you have a natural empathy with the fishing community in Ireland. I also believe that when you returned from Europe following the recent negotiations, that you were as hurt as any of the fishing families in the country by what has happened. And for generations, this country has suffered in the fisheries area, and it's very, very difficult on fishing communities to understand. Before I go on to anything else, I want to talk about the family, the Gaffney family and the Mary-Kate down in Arclough. You might remember that particular incident, the trawler was taken out of service because it was dangerous, and that family have suffered severe financial loss because of bureaucratic, I don't know what you'd call it. But nobody wants to take responsibility for the loss to the family, and I don't know where that case stands right now. I do know that the Fisheries Committee have been asked to look into it again, and we might come back to you on that. But I just want to make note of that, and you might throw a bit of research into it yourself. So, today I want to discuss, believe it or not, defence infrastructure in relation to the inland and marine fisheries. Without funding the authorities that are responsible for enforcing laws in this area, there will be a knock-on effect in other regulatory bodies. So, when we talk about fisheries protection, with one naval vessel at sea in the Atlantic at any given time, it is simply not possible to monitor illegal fishing that's taken place. The Air Corps do the best they can, but again, they have limited capacity for patrolling the area. I would ask you, Minister, down in your own county of County Clare in Shannon, there is a company manufacturing drones. And we could have much greater protection of the Atlantic and much more, shall we say, seeing eyes in the Atlantic if we were to use Indigenous industry manufacturing drones and have those drones patrolling the Atlantic. We could have that happening on a 24-hour-a-day basis. And with £1.7 billion being spent in defence, why in God's name wouldn't we spend some of it in our own country? You might go to Shannon and visit that company. I'm sure you've been there already. But you might go and visit them again and see what they might be able to do in the area of fisheries and inland fisheries. Just on inland fisheries, they depend on search and rescue for crisis situations. And we saw that we simply don't fund the search and rescue system well enough. And you will know from your last interaction with me in the last Parliament that it was a matter dear to my heart. And we spoke, you and I spoke on it often, and I know you had your own concerns and I know you visited a number of the SAR sites. So, again, we've got to look at that and look at how we negotiate those contracts into the future. As I've said, the Naval Service Minister, unless we have four or five ships at sea or unless we have top cover, using drones, why not do it? Everybody else is doing it. It's happening in the Middle East. It's happening in many other countries. Drones protect life because you don't have pilots and you don't have Naval Service at risk. So, it's something I would ask you to look into. I say this because I think there is a lack of strategic thinking on the part of government, and it has reduced our capability. For example, there is no maritime policy that I'm aware of, and that's something I think our committee is working on at the moment. Other countries have expressed concern regarding the ability of our country to protect its own waters. Last year, the Japanese Prime Minister stated Japan is deeply concerned at the lack of defence in the country, particularly when it comes to internet cables and the like. I know that's slightly away from fishing, but it is all part of the maritime domain, if you want. As I've said, I've harped on a bit about the Naval Service. Unless we have a single authority responsible for everything at sea, we're in trouble. So, you know, the Gardaí was responsible for undersea cables, and the Navy responsible for fisheries, and all sorts of other things. We really do need one single department with control over that area. There's also consequences for investigations. They must be immediate. We saw with the crash of 116, which was vital to the northwest of the country, and I know my colleague from Fine Gael has already expressed his own concern, and I'm sure he'll do it today, at the need for helicopter services in the county of Donegal, the forgotten county up in the northwest. But Donegal is one of the largest fishing fleets in the country, and massive harbour up there, and I'll leave it to my colleague to talk about that. But we do need to ensure that we have a naval service up, certainly in the northwest coast, right over to the northeast, keeping an eye on things, on what's going on in the area. So, as I say, I'm looking for greater empowerment of the Air Corps and of the naval service, and I'm looking for new thinking with respect to how we protect the Atlantic, how we protect our fisheries, and I think we can do that with modern technology and with drone technology. Finally, Minister, I'd just like to say on fisheries affairs, that unless we get our national security right, all of your efforts will go to waste. You're fighting hard to preserve as much of the fishing stock as we possibly can, and if we don't have eyes on the sea, seeing what's going on, we cannot stop rogue countries coming in and stealing the stock. It's as simple as that. We call it, you know, you can put nice words around it, but if they're fishing illegally in there, they need to be arrested. They need to be brought to heel, and I know that you will do that. And Minister, in summing up finally, I will say I believe that you have a deep interest in the sea. I think your roots over in the west of Ireland probably give you that. I do believe that you have empathy with the fishing community, and I'd just like to see you try and drive more innovative thinking, strategic thinking, when it comes to the Atlantic particularly. The same technology would work on the east coast. It would be cheap in the grand scheme of things, and not only that, Minister, it would send jobs into West Clare, and we would see massive improvement in the overall protection and the overall eyes on the sea off the west coast of Ireland. You might try and talk to your colleagues in defence on that. And let's go to Shannon. Let's go to the drone manufacturer and any other drone manufacturer there is. See what technology they have. See what's there that can be used, and let's go and start using it. You don't need people out in the Atlantic. What you do need is you need eyes out in the Atlantic, and I think drones can do that. So I'll leave it at that, Minister, and once again, thank you for being here.