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

I will continue the dialogue with the Minister because I continue to have concerns around it. Those in the industry in Ireland obviously engaged with the European Commission. Right now, they are in Brussels engaging with DG MARE. They will want to get a firmer understanding of this. What industry sources told me was that the European Commission's view was this was a dispute between Denmark and Ireland and if the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, had accepted that offer, the rest of the European Commission and member states were likely to accept it as a dispute between two parties. However, I will continue that dialogue. I am not asking Ms McSherry to respond further to that.

What I want to get into is Iceland. Ms McSherry will be aware it has been articulated both before Christmas and in the past week by leading spokespersons for the fishing industry in Ireland that they have concerns around Norway's ongoing access to Irish territorial waters under the jurisdiction of the Common Fisheries Policy but it is not a secret that Iceland is seeking to gain access in terms of mackerel and blue whiting. At a previous committee, the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, clearly criticised the behaviour of Iceland, Norway and the Faroes in terms of not adhering to ICES science and arguably being reckless with the way that it was not adhering to that. Therefore, there is a concern that countries outside the European Union are reckless in terms of not respecting the science. Of course, these are a migratory species. As Ms McSherry will be aware, they spawn off the coast of Ireland and work their way up through the Atlantic through various territorial waters. It is a collective responsibility to sustain this precious resource. The concern now is that you have a country the European Union views, and has challenged - namely Iceland - as being reckless around this. They are now seeking access. What they are seeking would be in excess of what Ireland already has in its own territorial waters. The population of Republic of Ireland is over 5 million. The population of Iceland is approximately 380,000. It is approximately the population of Belfast. One can see that it would be worrying and unfair if Iceland were to get the access it wishes to attain.

There is also a sense that various corporations, particularly in Holland, have interests in the Icelandic industry. They would gain twice. They would gain from their investments in the Icelandic fleet and from reciprocal access to waters up there. The question is: what is the gain for the Irish industry? The message in the Irish industry has been to hold the line strongly. The questions I have are as follows. What is the Department's understanding of the current state of this? I suppose what the Irish industry wants to know is whether a deal has been done. Has Ireland exerted its significant influence here because it is very unlikely that the other European member states would enforce this decision on Ireland, particularly in the aftermath of Brexit and all of the loss there? Is it the Department's understanding that negotiations are ongoing? Has a deal been struck? What is the current state of play and what assurance can the Department give the Irish industry that everything has been done to defend its interests, as articulated to the Minister and to the Department?