Mr. Seán O'Donoghue:

I thank the members for their questions which are pertinent and to the point. I will respond to Senator Mac Lochlainn's questions first in the order in which he put them. He rightly identified issues involved in the fisheries negotiations but I would remind the members that there were no discussions prior to 1973 on shares of stocks or tax and quotas. The only discussions in 1973 related to access in the context of the six-mile and 12-mile zones at that time. There was a major issue around that but there were no discussions about tax and quotas. Those discussions started in 1976. Six to seven years were spent negotiating this between 1976 and 1983. In that period we got a special recognition for the Hague preference but we got more than that in that we got a blank cheque and were told to report back to them with what we intended to catch. Unfortunately, we were not able to write that cheque at the time. That came down to the politicians and the Civil Service at the time and also to the industry which was party to that as well. Unfortunately, we missed a huge opportunity in that respect. It is important to note that the relative stability provision that was mentioned was not discussed prior to our entry into the European Union.

The Senator asked what hope do we have this time round, which is a pertinent question. Part of the reason we are pleased to appear before the committee is that we have to live in hope that we will get these sectors on the priority list of the Government and of the Taoiseach. To be fair, it is on the priority list of the Minister but that is not enough given the importance of these sectors. They need to be a Government priority and then they need to be a priority for Michel Barnier, the chief negotiator for the EU.

The Senator's final question related to the squeeze factor in that our area would be reduced, which is correct. That is probably part of the answer but some of the stocks in which the northern member states are interested such as North Sea herring, which is approximately 0.25 million tonnes of a fishery, can only be fished in the North Sea. The North Sea member states need 70% or 80% access to the UK waters for that. They cannot come to the west or the south of Ireland to fish for that species. However, there are some white fish stocks, particularly in the south east, that could be under pressure depending on the outcome of the negotiations.

The Senator also mentioned the trade issue. If we break the linkage between trade and accessing quota, I believe the game will be over. We will lose out because the UK has made it clear that it wants to separate fisheries from trade because it has seen the other side of the coin. It has seen that it has an Achilles heel on the trade issue but it has the upper hand on the access issue. Whatever we do collectively, the big picture here is that we cannot split the trade and the access issues.

I will move on to Deputy Pringle's questions as Deputy McConalogue had to leave. Deputy Pringle raised a number of pertinent queries. In terms of our involvement with other industries, since the first week of July 2016 when we knew the result of the vote on Brexit, we have been building alliances and bridges with all our European fishery colleagues. At this stage we would have a joint position in that we are all trying to ensure that we do not lose out on access and share of stocks.

We have been working very hard and done a lot of work behind the scenes to that end, but noting what I said about Article 50, one can be rolled over by member states. It is much better, therefore, to try to build alliances and friendships. I am not privy to it, but I hope that is what is going on at official level.

Interim access arrangements will be very important for us. One cannot have a situation where one negotiates a two-year deal, following which the United Kingdom will state that from then on it will take an extra share. I know my fisheries colleagues in Scotland and other parts of the United Kingdom pretty well. They see Brexit as their opportunity to make gains on some critical stocks that we share. The problem with this is that if they take an extra share and we maintain our existing share, there will be significant overfishing of these stocks which will lead to a decline. There is, therefore, the issue of overall management.

Deputy Thomas Pringle said there were opportunities on the trade side. To me, they are very much linked with trying to secure increased access and an increased share and balancing them, rather than stating there are opportunities for us in going down the trade route. Breaking the link is a problem.

I do not know whether the Chairman wants me to cover Deputy Charlie McConalogue's questions.