Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said there are real and effective consequences, but the EU has not been willing to use any of the tools at its disposal. I will move on.

The Minister also mentioned the Common Fisheries Policy review group in his submission. Perhaps it is my own fault and I should have been aware of it, but when I looked at the report I noted for the first time that the actual Common Fisheries Policy is not up for review this year. I think it is the first time there has not been a review of the policy. I wonder why that is the case, and why the European Commission has not done that. In saying that, we are looking for a review of the Hague principles as part of the recommendations here. Surely that opens up a very dangerous avenue for us. If the EU opens up those negotiations on the Hague principles, it is time for the review. There has to be a quid pro quoin relation to it. We cannot say that we do not want to do this now. We cannot just turn round and say that we have made our submission to the Commission, which sets out what we are looking for. If the Commission states it will negotiate on that, what happens?