Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We obviously want to improve our position. That is our objective. I have been asserting that at various European Council meetings. The Deputy is right; there is not an appetite among the Commissioner and many other member states for a full review. In fact, I have been the only one really pushing hard for that. Indeed, I took a very hard line in relation to the access arrangements as well, which were discussed over the last number of months, as I outlined earlier. Brexit has had the single biggest sideways impact on the relative stability since it was put in place in the early 1980s. We sought to avoid any impact in the first place, but throughout the Brexit negotiations and afterwards our position was that if there was to be any impact as a result of it, there should be fair burden sharing. That is something that member states were generally agreed on in principle. It is something that was agreed by industry representatives as well, including fishing industry representatives here in Ireland, who worked with their counterparts. Of course, everyone worked closely together. I worked closely with our fishing industry representatives and other member states in determining how to tackle the Brexit challenge. The other member states likewise worked with their industry colleagues across Europe as well. There was a general perspective that there should be fair burden sharing coming out of Brexit, if a burden was to be applied.