Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister and his officials for attending. One of the key things in all this, and it is the big issue facing everyone in the fishing industry and in so many other industries, is Brexit, the impact it will have and where it is going to leave us. In particular, there is impact on other EU country fleets which would traditionally fish in what will become British waters, if Brexit powers ahead, as we assume it will. Their displacement will probably put pressure on the stocks in Irish waters, or what would be Irish waters if we were not in the EU.

In that context and in the discussions the Minister is having at European level, is there any sense of a recognition of the impact this will have on the Irish fishing sector or that there needs to be a full review of the Common Fisheries Policy and where it is going in the context of Brexit? If we step back and look at the map of Europe, it is clear that Britain leaving takes a huge area of fishing waters out of the EU context. From an Irish perspective, Irish fishing vessels will either have to go through British waters or international waters to get back into EU waters. While this meeting is to discuss the total allowable catch and the pressures on the various sectors, and all that comes into play, much of the reason for all those pressures is overfishing and the pressure that comes from the very large fishing vessels from other European states that come into our waters and take a lot of our fish, particularly the super-trawlers. The impact of those will be even more severe if matters progress with Brexit as we expect them to progress.