Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would also like to be associated with the Chairman's expressions of sympathy to the family of Mr. Hugo Boyle.

At the last meeting, I asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine about the Hague preferences and I would like the witnesses to elaborate on how that can be utilised on the European side. It was initially set up to give the Irish and the UK a degree of preferential treatment in the context of quotas and total allowable catches, TACs. In the context of the UK's departure from the EU, do the witnesses believe the Hague preferences have been utilised to the fullest extent possible by the Irish fishing industry?

I fully agree with Deputy Mac Lochlainn on the importance of approaching this with a completely united front, North and South. I am a bit taken aback that since Deputy Mac Lochlainn's contribution, we have seen what is a very serious and important issue being turned into a political football. There is no future in that. We need to act collectively here, as a united front, to get the best results for our fishing industry.