Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for attending. Can they provide further clarity regarding the carve up of quota between what UK registered vessels have at present and what other EU member states have? What will happen there? If there is a hard Brexit and the UK is not willing to do a reciprocal deal on access to stocks and waters, what will happen to the UK's quota? In addition, what will happen to the quotas other EU member states have for various fish stocks? What is the process around that? The scenario of a tie-up would be massively disruptive and expensive and would cause massive financial loss to the fisheries sector. In the event of a tie-up, what are the estimates for the reduction in fish catches overall? In terms of the fish processing sector, what are the estimates regarding the availability of fish for the sector?

Deputy Pringle asked about funding under the EMFF. Dr. Beamish indicated that any funding would have to come from existing national allocations or envelopes. Can he clarify further what he meant? Obviously, it is essential that the level of funding in place in such an undesirable scenario could properly compensate the fisheries sector, both fishing vessel owners and the employees.

Dr. Beamish referred to the importance of the landbridge for fish getting out of the country, particularly due to the perishable nature of fish. He indicated that additional sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, checks would be required on fish products. Last summer the Government and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food announced that 300 SPS and veterinary officials would be hired to be in place to deal with the possibility of a hard Brexit. That number was reduced to 116 in October.

Have sufficient SPS personnel been recruited to carry out that work and, if not, what is proposed to ensure the checks will be carried out in a prompt manner?