Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

I will ask the Minister of State to wrap up on that. We will have an opportunity at the meeting after next when this committee will look at offshore renewable energies. Given that all members have already had a first opportunity to speak, I have a number of questions I would like to put to the Minister of State.

As Deputy Mac Lochlainn mentioned, he and I and our party launched that survey document yesterday. It makes for very depressing reading when we are looking at a sector that many of us are involved in and which has sustained our coastal communities for a very long time. Some of those responses point to a real distrust of government and the approach of successive Governments over many years to prioritise the sector, to vindicate the interests of coastal communities and to stand up for the industry at European level and elsewhere. Taken as a whole, if we were to distil it down to just a few words, there seems to be a problem with culture and attitudes at the heart of government. This is not something that is new. It is not something that has cropped up recently but it seems to be there at the heart of government when it comes to the fishing sector. The Minister of State has heard that feedback from the communities and industry already.

The events of recent weeks with the conclusion of the negotiations on this trade agreement and with the locking in of the provisions of the trade agreement for many years to come underscores that. It shows the lack of interest and disregard at European level for the Irish fishing industry and the coastal communities and the marginal communities it sustains. Out of the Commission's extremely long statement on the overall agreement, there were only four lines in the entirety of the text relating to sea fisheries, and nothing specific about Ireland. There is also the question that is rightly asked, and I believe that Deputy Mac Lochlainn alluded to it, around what is the dividend here for the Irish fishing industry. Where is the recognition that we are carrying the burden of this again? I note that the Minister of State's own statement at the time welcomed the certainty that it gave. When the industry has been haemorrhaging €44 million worth of fish every year under this agreement, and is likely to haemorrhage €800 million over the lifetime of the agreement, that is certainty for sure But the industry certainly knows it is screwed. This is the way I would put it to be honest. This is the way it is termed to me.

What can we do to leverage the fact that we are carrying this burden at European level as we run into the December Council quota negotiations and look for some additional funding? I note that the Brexit stability fund provided €31 million for ports and harbours. I have some questions about how that was directed and how accessible that was to local authorities in particular, for example, to access this funding for dredging and other works. How can we leverage the fact that we are under this burden now to do best for the industry and for the coastal communities?