Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. At present, 34% of the annual catch of the Irish fishing fleet is caught in UK waters under the Common Fisheries Policy. That is the scale of the threat to the industry here from these negotiations.

The industry is worth hundreds of millions of euro and 16,000 people are employed in the sector. Over the weekend, a representative from the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation voiced his concerns that Michel Barnier's proposal that moneys be returned to the UK will see a significant part of that burden borne out by Irish fishing fleets. Approximately 34% of our fish is caught in UK waters. Was the Minister's attention drawn to this before Mr. Barnier made the offer? Was he going to increase that percentage after the offer was initially rejected? Do we have a cut-off point? At what stage would any additional return from the EU to the UK be unacceptable? What is being done to offset the disproportionate impact on Ireland?

The fact of the matter is that Ireland's fishing sector is going to be negatively affected by the withdrawal of the UK from the EU. I appreciate that at this stage we do not know if the UK is in or out. I do not know if Boris Johnson himself knows whether it is in or out. When faced with that scenario, any other business would try to diversify into something else. Do we have proposals that we can put to the Commission, as raised by several other speakers, about the bluefin tuna? What other alternatives have we in that regard? Our fishers have had a lot of mistrust in the EU down through the years. I do not know whether that mistrust is even being addressed in the talks that are going on at the minute. Are we now at a point where we need our Government, and the Minister, to take a hard line with both the EU and the UK on what will affect our fishing fleets come 31 December if there is a no-deal Brexit? Either way, our fleets will be affected but this will impact on jobs and so on from 31 December. Is there a point at which we will play hardball with them?