Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 24 January 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Impact of the UK Referendum on Membership of the EU on the Irish Agrifood and Fisheries Sector: Discussion (Resumed)

4:00 pm

Mr. Seán O'Donoghue:

I will address Deputy Pringle's other question on bilaterals, which is a really important issue. If one goes back to the famous red map and looks at the green area between the Norwegian zone and the UK zone, I can guarantee that it makes much more sense for Norway to look at a bilateral with the UK rather than a bilateral with the EU. That is an avenue we are very conscious of because the UK would be totally free to do a bilateral agreement with Norway, and Norway would see it as very much in its interests to do that as well. That is another threat that we have to really look at.