Mr. Brendan Byrne:

On Senator Boyle's question about the €213 million, while the previous Government did set up a task force, those of us who were part of it found it nearly impossible to get any scheme that could focus money from the BAR fund to the various sectors that were in critical need of it. If we did succeed, as I said in my opening statement, the Brexit transition fund for the processors was earmarked for €12 million in the seafood task force, but Ireland chose to only draw down €7 million of it. The other €5 million could so easily have been given to the processing sector. There is a disconnect between the opportunities that exist in 100% European funding, which the BAR was, and how it was given to the sector. I thought how we managed that was very short-sighted. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the sector after it had lost 26% of its value. This is one thing that is glossed over and forgotten about. We who represent the sector have lost something at the stroke of a pen in order to get a political decision of the TCA. It was important that there would be a smooth exit for the United Kingdom from the European Union but in order to get that, the fishing industry lost 26% of its value at the stroke of a pen. It is not possible economically for us to reconfigure and get back to normal in two to three years. The penny has not dropped about this yet. Those are the consequences of why we are here.