Mr. Patrick Murphy:

I attended a conference on inshore fishing this morning at Dublin Castle and I brought my ideas to a Commission representative. I have brought them to other Commission representatives, along with solutions to what I see are the problems going forward.

We have a very poor share out of fish quota, as Mr. Casey has outlined. To use Mr. Sean O'Donoghue's catchphrase, we never cashed the cheque. Between 1976 and 1983, we were allowed to input the results of what our fishing fleet had caught and our quota was set on the basis of those figures and those of all the other EU member states. I have a problem with that.

We are debating the mackerel issue, but we will step away from that for a moment. In 1980, our Taoiseach at the time went on national television and said that we were living beyond our means and had to tighten our belts. Credit for buying new boats and putting fishermen out to sea was stopped. My father was a fisherman in Howth and he told me a very simple story which explains it well. He went out on a boat from Howth and caught a lorry-load of fish. They sent it to the market in Dublin and he went out again for the next trip. When he came in with the fish from the next trip, somebody from the post office came down and told him that the fish he had landed and sent to the Dublin market was rotten and that they were not going to pay for it. We had monkfish and anglerfish. People at the time did not realise what it was and they were dumping it out over the side, so we never built up a quota.

The rules that were applied at the time were stacked against us. Again, we did not have a modern fleet and there were no incentives to modernise the fleet. We had a factory or a boatyard, where Mr. Sheehy comes from and BIM built boats but the enterprise went to the wall. Now there are fish in the waters and we have modernised our fleet yet we still do not have access.

I have been asked for a solution. Under the landing obligation, boats are not allowed to dump fish anymore. The provision will come in like a black curtain in 2019. It will mean that we will not be allowed to dump fish over the side of boats but we will be choked because our quotas are so small. As Mr. Sheehy said earlier, we could not land a cod fish for three months last year.

I will explain what will happen under the landing obligation. For three months, fishermen do not fish where cod swim because there is a danger they might catch some cod. We have no entitlements to catch the cod and one cannot prosecute any other fishery. Does the committee understand what I mean? Our boats get tied to the pier wall and they can fish for nothing. My organisation has the following suggestion. Under the landing obligation, one can bring in fish that one previously dumped, and the scientists have told us. I thought we surely should ask all the European countries to reveal how much fish they had been dumping before the landing obligation. The saved fish then could be put into a common resource in order that any country that needed to access that fish to stay fishing and avoid the choke species could do so. Under relative stability, however, that initiative will not be allowed because, as our Department has said, they will not give one fish. I ask members, as legislators, to urge the Minister and his Department to ask and not just accept that the other 27 member states will use their power to vote down our suggestion because we are a small country. As a country, we should highlight what will happen.

I will touch on the issue of Brexit, while staying away from discussing mackerel. The UK catches 350,000 tonnes of fish in its waters but 670,000 tonnes of fish is caught by other countries. When the UK takes back its fishing grounds it can easily double its fishing efforts. We have said that Ireland should link it to trade. Just like what was said earlier about the importance of trade, if I am in business - as I have been - and if I can go to a buyer and state I can drop the price of my product to two-thirds of the price of my counterpart because I have more of the product, from whom will that buyer buy? Linking it to the market is well and good as a concept but it is incorrect. Ireland needs to stand up in this case.

I will return to the mackerel sector. We, as a small nation in the EU, should not allow ourselves to be dictated to just because we are smaller. Again, I shall revert back to Mr. Sean O'Donoghue who has done fantastic work and produced a map that displays the fishing grounds of Europe post Brexit. Let us remember that England is a coastal state.

At present there is controversy in Norway about the snow crab. The European Union took Norway to court and won its case, which means European boats have a right to fish in the waters of Norway but its navy will not allow them in. As DG MARE stipulates, one may have been given the right to enter waters but if the country refuses then one must go to war to challenge them. This is the dilemma that we face in the white fisheries sector. I will quickly explain the situation using a scenario based on 1,000 tonnes. At present Ireland can land 100 tonnes, England takes 200 tonnes and the rest of Europe takes 700 tonnes. Let us say that after it leaves the Union, England increases its tonnage by 200 tonnes giving it a total of 400 tonnes. However, the scientific body called the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, has said one cannot go above the threshold of 1,000 tonnes. Let us remember that Ireland with 100 tonnes had 10% of the allocation. If England has taken 400 tonnes out of the pot, that will leave 600 tonnes. As Ireland has 10% under the relative stability mechanism, our allocation therefore would be reduced to 60 tonnes under the new scheme. The committee members, as legislators, must be aware of this fact.

Regardless of the displacement within our own waters, this will be the final death knell for the Irish whitefish fleet if it happens. At least that is now on the public record here. That is what, as legislators, this committee should be driving home.

Members may want to know what I have asked for in this instance. I have asked the Marine Institute to put together a model that shows the displacement that will happen. It is not only a loss of fish that we will suffer. There are between 500 and 600 EU vessels fishing in English waters. When they are told to get out, they will go somewhere else. The only waters they will be looking to go to are the waters in which there are fish, that is, Irish waters. What is that going to do to our nursery grounds, fishing grounds and our stocks, regardless of what we are allowed to catch? It will be devastating, as far as I am concerned, although I am not an expert. We should be demanding that our main scientific institution determines what the effect will be.

To go back to the issue of inshore fisheries, everything trickles down from the top. If one takes a section out and puts pressure on, it will apply right down the line to the others. I would give the example of two cows in a field. Two cows in a field will survive on the grass growing there but if four cows are put in, they will all starve. I will leave the committee with that concept.