Mr. Seán O'Donoghue:

I thank the Deputy for his comments. I fully agree that we need a full approach across all sectors with everybody pushing together. I do not want to be sidetracked from the immediate position, however. We have a very bad fisheries deal that is hitting us here and now. We need action. I do not need sympathy from the Government or Ministers; I need action.

The burden sharing can be achieved and there is precedent for doing it. It was done between 1976 and 1983 when we were setting out the relative stability keys that we have been talking about. These are quota shares, to put it in layman's terms. It is forgotten that the UK benefitted hugely at that time, getting an extra 90,000 tonnes of fish that it held right up until the trade negotiations. We fought tooth and nail that it should have been taken from the British but they managed to keep that allocation as well. It is valued at €80 million. I have said that the value transferred by the EU to the UK is €182 million but we should add another €80 million because the UK held on to those extra quotas.

This was done through "equalisation" and that 90,000 tonnes of fish came from other member states. We need to sit down with colleagues immediately and indicate that Ireland has been hit disproportionately by this. We have done a very detailed analysis of the 124 stocks that are part of the trade agreement.

We can show exactly what member states got hit the worst and there is no doubt but that Ireland is greatly disproportionately hit than the other member states. I note that the Minister mentioned that Germany is in a similar position to us. Germany is not in a similar position because we got hit on our two main species to the tune of €26 million on mackerel and €7 million on prawns. As I have done the analysis, I can show that no other member state got hit like that and we need to address the matter.

As Deputies Carthy and Mac Lochlainn mentioned, back in the 1970s we had the Hague preferences that addressed the inequity in burden sharing and relative stability. I stress to this committee that we need action now. As the decommissioning of vessels and communities is unacceptable, together we must move might and main to ensure that will not happen.