Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to take a look at the submission from the Irish Fish Producers Organisation. It is devastating. That is the only way to describe it. That is the context of our industry before we get to Brexit.

Brexit is dealt with in this report and in the submission by Sean O'Donoghue from the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation. Ireland took 40% of the EU's loss in fisheries resulting from the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and that was after the devastating loss we saw in the lead up to Brexit. There has never been an acceptance of fair burden-sharing or levelling up, as some in the industry refer to it.

As the Minister will be aware, fishermen want to fish. They do not want to be tied up, but they have been tied up and are now being decommissioned. We are looking at the whitefish sector being one third of what it was 15 years ago. There are only two island nations in the European Union, namely, Cyprus and Ireland, and our whitefish sector is now one third of what it was 15 years ago. I have already mentioned the devastating decline in the value of the processing industry. That means the loss of jobs and wealth across our communities. I do not see any evidence of an improvement in the solidarity of the European Union. That is a diplomatic failure of our State in negotiations. There is no other way around that. There was no burden-sharing or fairness for a State that already had a deeply declining seafood sector despite the length of its coastline. Belgium has a bigger seafood industry although it has a fraction of the length of our coastline. Germany has a smaller coastline than Ireland but has multiples of our seafood industry.

I will ask a few questions in the time I have left. Is the Minister aware that the Norwegian request on blue whiting is an entirely new and additional request beyond any existing arrangement regarding blue whiting access? What did Ireland submit before September to the Commission regarding our priorities on the issue of blue whiting? What was our position? What did we ask for? What was our plan?

The Marine Institute recently shared graphics on the migratory pattern of blue whiting, including stock book data. The additional access the Norwegians are looking for would provide them with ease of access to blue whiting worth more than €120 million in our exclusive economic zone, EEZ, while Ireland would be left with a quota of €11.8 million.

Is the Minister willing to defend the industry's position and vote to deny the additional access to the Norwegians in 2023 and keep them north of the 56° line and west of the 10° line?