Mr. Brendan Byrne:

One of the historical weaknesses Ireland has had is that we have been very weak at engagement at European level, as both a Government and a sector. The competency for fish lies solely with the European Commission and it has been that way since 1983 with the Common Fisheries Policy. That is one of the weaknesses that we as a country need to address, at both official Government level and a sectoral level because in Europe, in Brussels, that is primarily where the decisions are taken. We need to be stronger in Europe. We are all talking about the current evaluation of the Common Fisheries Policy. There is no certainty that will lead to a review. In order to get it to a review stage, where there may or may not be opportunity for Ireland, a lot of political lobbying needs to be done at European level by both our Government and the sector. It is now that we need to do that. One of the areas where this committee will have a very important function is that we need to look at what level of engagement we have and what level of representation we have in Brussels and, if necessary, that will have to be beefed up. I know it to be the case that it needs to be beefed up but I will not draw a conclusion that the committee must draw.