Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy, who has vast experience in this area and, like many others on the committee, has been of significant help to me. I come from a small farming background. Fishing is not necessarily my bailiwick but I am learning fast because of the expertise of others around this table across all parties. I thank them for that.

I will finish my point to Deputy Mac Lochlainn, which will be of benefit to all, on the person who will do the facilitation. Mr. Kieran Mulvey has indicated a willingness to assist in this regard. He is a man of very considerable knowledge and skill who can help to assist us, in the first place, with facilitation, and in developing a roadmap for addressing those issues that are within our remit. He will assist us in developing that overall future direction we want to go in. I will make further announcements about that in due course.

I agree with most, if not all, of what Deputy Gallagher said regarding his assessment of Brexit and its implications. The way forward is difficult and challenging, as he knows from his experience at EU level. It is regularly mentioned to me, by current incumbents of ministerial office and Members of the European Parliament, what a contributor he was in his time there. We thank him for that. On the overall reset on which the British Government wanted to engage with the European Union, much of which was done through the Department of Foreign Affairs, it will be seen that the response in the British press from British fishermen has been very negative towards their Government. While we might feel, rightly, that it was not a wonderful deal from our perspective in the overall Brexit side of things, British fishermen certainly believe that it was very negative from their perspective. I continue to reiterate that the agreement reached on 19 May is as good as or better than I might have expected when I started on this journey with the kind of briefings-----