Mr. Greg Casey:

The term "relative stability" keeps being thrown around. It is a concept that first appeared in EU legislation in 1992, but it was not defined until ten years later. It was designed to act as a balancing mechanism to take account of the economic and social circumstances of competing interests and areas across the European Union. Remoteness from the market, in other words, peripherality must be taken into account as part of the balancing exercise. We submit that, in the context of Ireland's share, after the concept of relative stability was introduced in 1992 and subsequently defined ten years later, Ireland's relative remoteness from the market should have been taken into account. The situation is about to become far worse in that we will have to pass through the no man's land of Britain to get to the EU market with, possibly, two trade barriers along the way. Ireland's social and economic circumstances and remoteness for communities along its coast that rely on fishing were never taken into account in the sharing out of stocks on the basis of relative stability. Essentially, that is all I have to say on the issue. The concept of relative stability has been kicked around for the past ten or 15 years. If one asked people what it actually meant, almost everyone would give a different answer. Its definition was actually set out in a European regulation ten years after the concept had first been used, which is extraordinary. We submit Ireland never canvassed on peripherality and remoteness from the market as a means to target a higher share of stocks and quotas.