Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for his opening statement. This is an annual process. We discuss the savage cuts proposed at Council. Then the Minister goes to negotiate and comes back having rescued the situation. That is the story presented in the media each year. The figures keep declining each year regardless.

We have a detailed proposal but some aspects of it have confused me. The Commission sustainability impact conclusions state that there are no indications of progress towards achieving the maximum sustainable yield by 2020. The target has been jeopardised yet the Commission is still proposing a 20% cut in effort for the Irish fishing fleet for 2017. How does that square up against the proposal from the Commission? The Commission has said there are no indications that we are not on track to achieve maximum sustainable yield by 2020, yet it has proposed a 20% cut across the Irish fishing effort.

Last year was the first year the so-called quota uplift was supposed to be in place. It was not clear last year how much of the quota was comprised of the uplift and how much was comprised of the cut. The impact assessment states that Ireland has required that the Commission provide the methodology used to calculate the quota top-ups in a visible and transparent manner. That implies the process has not been visible or transparent up to now. Has the Minister made any progress with the Commission in this regard? To what extent do the proposals for 2017 include top-ups or are made up of top-ups at the moment? It would be interesting and important to hear that.

We know there is a question over where the status of stocks is unknown. How much survey activity has taken place? How much effort has been put in to finding out the condition of the stocks? We have two survey vessels. I understand they spend approximately two months of the year in Canada surveying stocks there. I am unaware of others. For example, cod surveys have not been done in the Celtic Sea in recent years. What effort has been put in to assessing stocks in the Celtic Sea and in our waters that would add to the situation in terms of negotiation this year?

If we negotiate the Hague preferences successfully it will mitigate some of the reduction. The economic impact of the proposals ranges from €14 million to €11 million. Do the Hague preferences cover prawns? What impact will these have on the prawn fishery if we are successful in getting the full Hague preferences implemented?

For the past six months everyone has been discussing Brexit. My question is more for the future rather than for this year's allocation. Anyway, I will take the opportunity to ask the question. If or when Brexit goes ahead, we will have 60% of EU coastal waters as opposed to 25%, which is the position now. Does the Department have a view on whether this provides an opportunity for Ireland to increase the share of fish stocks that we can target, given that we will have 60% of the coastal waters?