Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have spoken with Michael Gove, the newly-appointed Secretary of State. I hope to have a meeting with him in the not too distant future to discuss all of these matters in greater detail. In a brief telephone conversation, I raised with him our concerns that long-established fishing patterns would fall victim to the approach they are pursuing in the context of Brexit. Whereas it is fair to say we got a good hearing, I did not get any recoil from them from the stated position they have taken publicly or indeed that their industry is trying to pursue also. We are not in negotiation directly. We are in negotiation through the European Union and what we are putting most emphasis on is creating awareness at European Union level of all the complex issues surrounding Brexit. It is not entirely surprising that the United Kingdom would leave the London Fisheries Convention in the context of its approach to Brexit, given all the utterances they have made. It has raised the temperature and it makes it more difficult to get a clear line of sight as to its ultimate approach. Depending on who one listens to and the paper one reads, one gets a different interpretation of the kind of Brexit being prosecuted in the UK on any given day. It is particularly challenging.

To come back to the central tenet, we are very clear in terms of what we want from Brexit. The rationale behind the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill in the first instance was to reciprocate what was already available to us going North. However, we also felt that in the context of the overall picture on Brexit, that we would be out of step. Given that they have articulated since we published their intention, it is something on which we have to reflect. On the all-island basis, however, there is still merit that we should reflect on in an all-island approach to these matters. I would welcome the Senator's further consideration of our approach in that regard.

A voice missing in all of this, in the context of the all-island approach, is an Executive in Northern Ireland. I appreciate all the efforts and difficulties around that, but it would be very interesting to hear the views of members of a Northern Executive in the context of voisinage, if we had them around the table. In the very brief period between the court ruling and the collapse of the Executive in Northern Ireland, they were very clear in their request that we restore legally the all-island arrangement on these matters as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, that voice has been missing for the past several months and I hope it is back on stage as quickly as possible. I think I have-----