Fianna Fail’s ‘Next Steps’ have seen a 31% rise in unemployment-Joe McHugh

donegal | miscellaneous | press release Thursday June 12, 2008 12:27 by Juno enda84mac at yahoo dot com

Time to take coastal communities seriously

Fine Gael's Joe McHugh says that it is time the Government addressed the decline of coastal communities.

Donegal North East Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh says that Fianna Fail’s election promise of ‘taking the next steps’ has resulted in a 31% increase in unemployment in just one year. He insists that the government must address issues relating to coastal communities, who are being wiped out by this government.

“The fishing industry has been in decline in recent years, but the effects were covered up by the rise in the construction sector. Now, as that falters, we are beginning to see the extent of the damage caused to our coastal communities.”

“The Inishowen peninsula has seen a 40% increase in unemployment since last May. Many villages in Inishowen were once proud fishing communities, but the Fianna Fail government have presided over the decimation of these communities.”

“As a member of the Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I am currently carrying out a report, entitled, ‘Diversification of the Inland Fisheries Industry in our Communities’. I will be calling on the government to implement the recommendations from this report; in the same way I am still calling on the government to implement a training programme to re-train fishermen for the merchant navy.”

“There is a serious problem with the dumping of fish at sea, due to unworkable quotas, therefore, the government must re-negotiate quotas and more importantly, reinstate the Department of the Marine. The criminalisation of fishermen must be addressed and I will be calling on the cabinet to encourage diversification within the industry.”

The Deputy concluded, “We have 201756 people unemployed in this country. We now know what Fianna Fail’s ‘next steps’ were, and it is clear that the electorate were duped by a party lacking in vision, motivation and accountability.”