Mr. Seán O'Donoghue:

I thank the Chair for letting me back in. I will briefly make some points as we are coming to the end of the meeting. I want to highlight two or three key points. I know we have dispersed but it is worth reiterating them again. I cannot overemphasise that the burden sharing should be addressed at the forthcoming December Council. It should also be addressed by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney. We cannot be fobbed off by saying “Ah, we will wait for the Common Fisheries Policy review”. That is not an adequate answer. We need to do that.

I fully agree with Mr. Murphy on decommissioning. As far as I am concerned, the modalities and the criteria of the decommissioning have not been decided yet. This was addressed by all the organisations here today. We need to make sure that when the final scheme comes out and gets state aid approval, that it has addressed issues. There is nothing under the BAR funding regulation that I can see that stops that from being done.

We have not mentioned one other thing about the BAR funding. Mr. Murphy is quite right that when Commissioner Sinkeviius was in Killybegs, he indicated to us that there would be maximum flexibility on the BAR funding. One of the areas, which would obviously make direct sense because we are only talking about a three-year period, is that there is direct losses compensation for the fish loss. This is being pursued by a number of member states. As I understand it, the Commission is amenable to looking at that. The task force made recommendations of €423 million. As far as I am concerned, if that figure ends up to be €600 million, then so be it, because we are the ones who were affected under the scheme.

The final thing I want to say is that because we are facing into this Council, which has lost its clout because of the EU-UK bilateral agreement I am concerned that when we come to the midnight time again - as always happens with these Councils - it will be a fait accompli. I just will take one stock as an example, which is haddock in the north west. Scientists tell us that this is in a healthy state. We are expecting a 125% increase. Because of these bilateral negotiations, as I see it, we will end up with just a 5%. I am concerned that the whole role that the Council had on setting tax and quotas for the following year is no longer what it is. We have no influence whatsoever in relation to this. This will be a fait accompli and a rubber-stamping exercise.