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

Whereas the December Council is critical for the year-to-year quotas it secures for the industry, the Deputy has hit the nail on the head in terms of what is the biggest challenge for the Irish fishing industry for the years ahead, which is obviously Brexit. In that context, we have been engaged in a very intensive way with the industry since even before the UK vote on 23 June 2016 but this has ramped up significantly since then. The industry's analysis and our own analysis are ad idemon the scale of the challenge the industry faces in the context of the UK leaving in circumstances where it would control access and quota in its waters. For example, with regard to our most valuable fishery, we catch 60% of our mackerel and over 40% of our second most valuable stock in UK waters. We have been working hand in hand with the industry in regard to that challenge and building an alliance across Europe of other member states that are equally impacted in terms of the exposure of their industry to UK waters. Spain, France, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden are part of a platform that we have been instrumental in constructing with a view to feeding in our shared analysis on what it is we want in the Brexit negotiations, and this has been mirrored by a similar platform constructed by an industry alliance. There is not an iota of a difference between our shared analysis of the challenge and what it is we want from the outcome of these negotiations.

What we clearly want is continued access and, effectively, the status quo. In terms of how we prosecute that, we want to make sure that, in terms of the future relationship, these issues are dealt with in the context of the future trading relationship, not in isolation but in terms of the UK's demands for market access for its products, such as financial services, aviation, pharmaceuticals and the car industry. We want the negotiations on fisheries to be inextricably linked with those negotiations.

In terms of the agreement that is now there, that is, the withdrawal treaty and the accompanying political declaration, we are where we wanted to be when we set out originally. That does not mean there is any room for complacency. It means that, on the basis the withdrawal treaty is approved, the status quowill apply to the Common Fisheries Policy up to the end of 2020. During that period, in regard to what is in the political declaration, there will be negotiations around the issues concerning fisheries. We are very clear on what we want. We want the continuation of the status quoand we believe that, given what the UK is asking in respect of a close trading relationship, it is right and proper that those two issues would not be separated but would be inextricably linked.