Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 July 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

London Fisheries Convention: Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

5:30 pm

Photo of Pádraig Mac LochlainnPádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will put my core question to the Minister. Has the Common Fisheries Policy and the division of Irish waters under that policy been a good deal for Ireland? Is the status quoa good deal?

The difficulty is that while we say we will try to form a Common Position in Europe to negotiate with Britain on all of this, those in fishing communities around our coast do not believe we ever got a good deal. That is the difficulty. They believe that, yet again, their priorities will be sacrificed for what is seen as the greater good. I am sure the Minister will appreciate why this mistrust exists. It might not be manifested at a large platform when everyone is trying to be as diplomatic as possible to defend their interests, but privately there is a sense, as the Minister knows, that we never got a good deal on our fisheries or our waters. That particular sector was sacrificed for what was seen as the greater good and the fear is that this will happen again. That is the core issue.

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