HEART BEAT:A disgraceful episode during a time of turmoil could put a village's survival in doubt, writes MAURICE NELIGAN
THIS COLUMN is about blood pressure; my blood pressure. As you all know, stress can raise your pressure, sometimes to dangerous levels. I sat down to write today and realised there are so many things wrong in our little country that it is next to impossible to list them all.
We need to get our country back and remodel it. To begin, we must rid ourselves of a Government with no shred of a legitimate mandate in current times. We must also rid ourselves of those who have reduced us to penury and blighted our lives and those of generations to come.
We must ensure that those to whom we entrust power in the future will take care of our country as a whole and look after all the people to the best of their abilities, not just their cronies and the once, unjustifiably, powerful. They must be capable of leading honestly and restoring our national pride.
I think everybody knows times are very bad. I think everybody now realises that those who brought us to this sorry pass cannot credibly be part of the solution. We cannot fix our broken services, in education, health, infrastructure or anything else, while we are handicapped by the detritus of miserable self- serving failure. We mustn’t expect miracles from those who follow in office, but we must expect honest endeavour.
Let’s have no more rubbish about what an alternative government would do. They haven’t been in power for 12 years, so it is time to find out what they would do. Things couldn’t be worse.
I want to move now from contemplating general incompetence to an illustrative particular. This is something I have written about before, and which I and those directly involved hoped had been settled by reason and common sense.
Mytilus edulisis our common mussel and is of great, indeed vital, importance to the townlands that comprise the village of Cromane just down the coast from me in Kerry. The fishery, about 200 years old, exports mussel to France and the Netherlands and supplies throughout Ireland. It employs about 70 people, brings in revenues of almost €4 million and is the type of acquacultural endeavour that in theory we are supposed to support.
Last year, the fishery was closed by Ministerial Order, apparently in accordance with the EU's Natura directive which is aimed at the conservation of birds and habitats. It was pointed out inter aliathat the birds and fishermen had coexisted with no problem for several hundred years. Neither was any evidence produced that mussel farming in this manner caused any harm to the bird population. Common sense appeared to break out and the fishermen were told that a master plan to govern the use of Castlemaine Harbour, which is the eastern end of Dingle Bay, was in discussion and that would address the issues comprehensively.
Fast forward one year and there is no plan. The fishermen ask when they may harvest the seed and do not receive any answers. They seek no confrontation with the relevant authorities, whoever they are. They get bounced from Billy to Jack; the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, BIM, the Maritime Institute and the Department of the Environment.
Eventually, three boats, all having valid aquaculture licences, set forth to transplant the seed before it is eaten by the natural predators, starfish and small crabs. This action appears clearly lawful under Statutory Instrument (S.I) 197 of 2009 signed by Minister Brendan Smith.
On Tuesday, September 1st, the boats were boarded by the Naval Service and Fisheries Inspectors as they went about their business. The fishermen were still unable to ascertain what they had done wrong.
Coastwatch, an environmental group, welcomed the action taken, but described it as too little, too late. The group said that all over the weekend a boat could not be found to stop the fishing, and described the action as illegal dredging of a mussel seed bed and “dumping” in a protected habitat behind Inch Strand.
Furthermore, on Kerry Radio, the same spokesperson said the fishery had been due to open on September 10th and that the fishermen had jumped the gun. It was also stated that the problems with starfish eating the seed were exaggerated.
There is a problem here. How could this unelected person obtain dates that the working fishermen could not? Are the views of single issue groups like these to override the livelihoods of the fishermen, and the survival of a coastal village? This episode in these times of trouble is simply disgraceful. What chance these and similar areas will vote yes to Lisbon? I am proud to have friends among the decent people of this community and I know who to believe. This is yet another wrong to be righted in the reckoning to come.
- Maurice Neligan is a cardiac surgeon