Mr. Cormac Burke:

I have a couple of points in response. There is a lot of talk about the CFP and the EU Commission, but there is not so much talk about the work that needs to be done here at home. I will give two examples.

In October 2014, when Commissioner Damanaki was about to leave, there was a seismic shift in the division of EU mackerel quotas. I will put this into perspective. At that time, Ireland had a quota of more than 90,000 tonnes of mackerel and the Faroe Islands had 8,500 tonnes. As of today, the Irish mackerel quota is at an historic all-time low of less than 40,000 tonnes because we are sticking to the scientific advice, while the Faroe Islands, which are ignoring the advice, have a quota of approximately 118,000 tonnes.

That kicks back to the processing sector. With regard to the issue at hand, as I have said, there are issues here at home. I am getting into Mr. Conneely's area here but we have to ask ourselves how many successful and vital inshore fisheries have been shut down in Ireland over the past 30 years although they continue to be utilised in other EU member states. I am talking about wild salmon, bass, freshwater eels and, in more recent times, spurdog, although I believe that fishery has reopened under very tight restrictions, and pollock, the quota for which is now so minuscule that it might as well not be open. These are not questions for the EU but for our own Department and our own regulators.