Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to attend this meeting. As I said earlier I am not a member of this committee. It was good of the Chairman to invite the Deputies representing Cork South-West and Kerry to attend this meeting.

They epitomise new politics agus, mar sin, ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil duit.

I welcome all the witnesses but in particular Greg Casey, John O'Sullivan, Patrick Murphy and Ronan Sheehy from my beautiful constituency of Cork South-West.

I cannot over-emphasise the importance of fishing to places in my constituency such as Baltimore, Castletownbere, Kinsale and Schull. In many of those places, fishing is the only way of making a viable living and therefore the local economy is very dependent on fishing. It is vitally important that the fishing industry is looked after but I am not sure if the Minister, Deputy Creed, knows the extent to which parts of my constituency are dependent on fishing. For example, 95% of employment in the Beara Peninsula is directly or indirectly connected to fishing so the message about the huge importance of fishing in Cork South-West must go out from this meeting.

With regard to Brexit, the general election will take place in the United Kingdom, UK. We hope that the potential hard Brexit might become a soft Brexit but no one knows if that will happen. A hard Brexit would present a clear and present danger to the Irish fishing and seafood industries. Currently, there are strong trade links between countries. Seafood imports from the UK in recent years represented 65% of total imports into this country worth €148 million, while Irish seafood exports to the UK represented 13% or €71 million of the total.

The Government must make fishing a top priority in any future negotiations between the European Union and the UK. It is imperative that we safeguard Irish interests relating to access to fishing grounds and quota share, including the Hague preferences, while avoiding the erection of trade barriers. It is important also that any formal agreements must be part of any future Brexit negotiations. My party has called on the Government to appoint a spokesman on Brexit and I repeat that call now. Fishing is too important an issue not to have a one-stop-shop and one Minister responsible for Brexit.

With regard to the imbalance in the mackerel quota, I am here to fight for those in Cork South-West. Ms Parke made reference to the history in this regard and said that it all happened during the 1970s. People will have varying opinions on what happened then but it is very important that a sense of fairness is introduced for the future. In terms of the mackerel quota review, Cork South-West and Kerry need more of the quota because 14% is not fair. I call on the Minister, and I regret he is not here to listen to our views, to introduce a sense of fairness in that regard. It is not all take. The people involved in fishing in Cork South-West are willing to trade in other quotas. We do not want to grab anything. However, a sense of fairness must be introduced and I implore the Minister to introduce that with regard to the mackerel quota for Cork South-West.