Hansard

I, too, congratulate Beatrice Wishart on lodging the motion and on the way in which she opened the debate. I also associate myself with her remarks—and yours, Deputy Presiding Officer—to the family and friends of Dr Ian Napier, who I know was respected by members on all sides of the chamber and across the industry.

I thank all the organisations that submitted briefings for the debate. The number of briefings that we received shows the interest that there is outside the chamber in influencing what MSPs say inside it. That supports the point that has been made by almost every speaker, which I reiterate yet again, that we should be debating the subject in Government time, not as an issue that is added on at the end of the day because a back-bench MSP has brought it to the chamber.

The Government really needs to reflect on the fact that it has not held a debate on fishing for three years, which is also sadly indicative of that particular department of the Scottish Government. We should also be debating the rural affairs brief more in Parliament. Indeed, when there was outrage—correctly—from farmers across Scotland and the rest of the UK about the inheritance tax that was applied by the UK Labour Government, although the Scottish Government brought a debate on the subject to the chamber, it only did so a week after Tim Eagle had led a debate on the issue for the Scottish Conservatives. Again, Opposition parties had to use their debating time to get the Government to discuss the issue.

I hope that the cabinet secretary will take many things away from today’s debate and that we get a guarantee that there will be a full debate in Government time to allow the issue to be discussed in Parliament and across the parties, given that there are so many issues that we could focus on today.

I will focus on an issue that was one of three that the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation highlighted in its briefing for the debate. Spatial squeeze is an issue that the industry and the sector are acutely aware of and are particularly worried about with regard to their future. We hear talk about a just transition to renewables, and we all want to get behind that, but the industry feels that it is an unjust transition for the fishing industry. Too many long-established fishing areas are being lost to provide opportunities to allocate fishing grounds to the renewables sector.

We have to find a better way for the renewables industry to work with the fishing sector. I believe that the fishing sector has done an awful lot to accommodate what is happening in the seas and in our waters, but it is not being met halfway by industry, and in some cases by Government, which has left it feeling squeezed out of the fishing areas that provide us with the vital produce that we need.

People speak about renewables and offshore energy being part of our energy security, but we have to treat food security as being as high a priority as energy security. That means supporting our farmers but also our fishermen and giving them areas to fish in to provide the quality produce for which our Scottish fishermen are rightly famed.

I have worked on spatial squeeze for some time. When I was a member of the UK Parliament, the Scottish Affairs Select Committee held an inquiry on the issue and we published a report. Sadly, however, our report was not as full as it could be, because the cabinet secretary refused to attend the session. I know that SNP members were disappointed that she failed to attend. That reinforces the point that the Government needs to get behind the fishing industry and get involved in and engage with the sector.

Finally, several members have mentioned the coastal testimonies that we heard at the reception that was hosted by Rhoda Grant, which are in the book that has been provided to members. Rhoda Grant quoted Bailey Dacker from Kishorn, and I will finish by quoting him, too. He is a young fisherman who is passionate about his industry, and he says:

“Who would I say owns the sea? All of the fishermen.

I don’t feel like I have a say in the decisions made about the sea, but I’d like to. A lot of the decisions by the government aren’t taking into consideration the fishermen’s thoughts at the moment. If I were to make one request of political decision-makers, it would be to come and ask us younger fishermen.”

We need to hear from the future generation of fishers, who are so important. I hope that the Government takes that on board.