Mr. Francis O'Donnell:

I will address the question posed by Deputy Pringle. He is right. We cannot do a bilateral agreement with the UK once it leaves the Common Fisheries Policy and the London Fisheries Convention. However, the EU can negotiate on our behalf and that of other member states in terms of access and use our unique situation, which has been created by the vacuum that now exists from the Supreme Court ruling, as a piece of muscle. I appreciate that there needs to be humanity around this. Unless one is permanently resident in Northern Ireland, they were not supposed to have a vessel registered under voisinage. If vessels find that they are no longer legally allowed to fish, they have registered their vessels with the Irish State, bought their kilowatts and tonnage and have got on with it. Some of them have spent a significant amount of money. We cannot have a two-tier system. It just does not work.