Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

For anybody listening in, it would appear that Iceland controls its fishing fleet, the government of the Faroe Islands controls its fishing fleet and countries like these have nationalised fishing fleets. This is private enterprise. All the EU has done is tut-tut for the past three or four years about the behaviour. We hear about countries but these are corporations based in the EU that have become enriched with no price to pay. The EU has no credibility because it has allowed this to happen.

The Minister of State is right. It is possible to legally purchase quota across the EU under the Common Fisheries Policy and it is possible to legally go into Iceland, the Faroes and, to a lesser extent, Norway and buy up quota. That is true. Legally, it can be done but is it moral? Is it ethical? Is it at the heart of what we are seeing? The answer to the last question is "Yes". Do we have a Common Fisheries Policy that appears to reflect the industrialisation of fishing by these corporations? We talk about climate change and being sustainable and low-impact. All of this is in tatters because we have allowed an industrialisation policy from some corporations within and outside the EU to destroy our fisheries. That is the investigation that needs to happen. The EU has no moral high ground from which to tut-tut at other countries when it has allowed this to happen under the guise of international trade and legalities. It is very clear that these corporations are transcending the EU and outside it and are involved in utterly reckless practices that have destroyed our fisheries. There needs to be an investigation into that.