Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a view in Ireland that when we entered the European Economic Community, now the European Union, we sacrificed our fish stocks as part of the overall package for the islands. Fisheries were not a priority for our Government or for the British Government and it is interesting that the latter is now going around the coastal fishing communities and belatedly presenting itself as their champions. If our fisheries have not been a priority for Governments down the years, what makes the witnesses believe they are going to be one now? What gives them hope that anything will be different in these negotiations?

We have all seen the famous map with the red zone identifying British waters and BIM presented the same map when its representatives were here. It is very stark and clearly presents the threat to our interest. Will the blue zones, representing Irish and EU waters, be squeezed even further? Will Spanish, Dutch and French trawlers be squeezing our waters even more as a result of this?

Mr. O'Donoghue drew our attention to the level of dependency of Britain on the EU market, with two thirds of its fish coming from the EU. He said this gave him hope that we could get a deal and asked that his organisation be part of these negotiations and the trade negotiations. How should we use the UK's dependency on the EU to provide something positive? It would be one of the few positive things in this threat we face.