Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a thing called relative stability which is what determines who gets quota and where. That is not being changed under the CFP reform because if we attempt to change it, the process would go nowhere because there is not a qualified majority and there are probably only two or three countries that would seek to change it. Obviously, Ireland would like to see an increase in its quota but recent decisions in respect of quota allocations show we have two thirds of the European Union boarfish quota, which is a new quota stock. When negotiating access to quota in recent years, we have done very well in that area. We can go through the argument as to why we are where we are when we look to the time Ireland became a member of the EU. I read in the fishing media each week that people are talking about the need to actually change quota and so on. I have to concentrate on what is possible in terms of what we are doing. I avail of every opportunity to try to increase quota for Irish fishermen if it is sustainable to do it. I will continue to do that and fight for the best possible deal. We will seek to maintain the Hague Preferences and the protection of the Irish Box off the south and south west coast of Ireland where there are many vulnerable species and a lot of spawning is taking place. At every opportunity I seek to protect the industry while at the same time trying to be a balanced and fair chairman of the current negotiations. For me to start promising this in the CFP reform we would want to be able to change relative stability; that would be blatantly misleading and will not happen any time soon. We need to concentrate on changing what we can rather than spending time and energy debating something we cannot change for the moment, unless something dramatic changes politically in European Union fishing.