Mr. John Lynch:

I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for his question. He is absolutely correct. We have long been pushing for action to be taken against Norway, the Faroes and Iceland for the overfishing they have engaged in, which has had a detrimental and negative impact on the stock. The stock is now in decline. It was actually increasing at the time those states awarded themselves these unilateral quotas. That is where this kicked in. They decided they were going to take more and they took more. We have had many discussions with our own Government, our own Department and the Commission on this issue. We always asked that the trade agreements with those countries would be used to force them - I should say encourage them - to fish within sustainable limits and within the quotas under the sharing agreement that was established in 2014. In that agreement, Ireland and Europe actually gave quota to the Faroes, Iceland and Norway but they still came back looking for more. When that happens, you need to deal with it in a fair and proper manner. Using the trade agreements with those countries is the only form of punishment available.

It is encouraging that, last week or two weeks ago, Europe adopted what are now known as the Faroese measures. The Commission will now have the option of applying trade sanctions on those countries if they continue to overfish. The Deputy spoke about an Ireland Inc. point of view and having an office and capability to deal with these matters as one in Brussels. As I said earlier, we need to work together in Brussels because we are looking for the same thing. We need to work together to deal with these countries that are fishing unilaterally, partly in European waters or Irish waters - whatever way you want to look at it. We cannot allow that to continue. We need to encourage the Commission to use these new measures to bring those third countries back into line with a policy of fishing sustainably and within the advice.