Mr. Aodh ? Domhnaill:

I am with the Irish Fish Producers Organisation and I represent vessels all around the coast in pelagics and demersals. I will not go over the areas covered very well by the other two participants but will focus on some key issues for the seafood sector and in the context of the negotiations. At the moment, the Norwegians are abusing the quotas on mackerel. They have been setting unilateral quotas for the last three years. At the same time, as a third country they are pressing for access to Irish waters to fish a massive quota of blue whiting worth €100 million to €120 million, most of which will be taken in our waters. This is a major ambition of theirs. It is fundamental to them and it is fundamental to the negotiations overall. To put it into perspective, the Irish boats will probably have a quota value of between €9 million and €12 million. The Norwegians have almost ten times the quota that we have and yet the fish are in our waters.

I am asking for a Brexit mitigation strategy. Brexit really hit the industry hard. We are decommissioning 60 vessels at the moment. In Rossaveal alone, there are nine vessels, seven of which have applied for decommissioning. This is decimating the fleet and the industry. We have a golden opportunity to take issue with Norway and tell them they cannot access our waters south of 56° 30' N unless they are prepared to compensate our fishermen by way of quota transfers. It is up to us as a member state to stand firm, to set the ambition, defend the sector and get something reciprocal in return. If we allow a third country to access our waters to fish in our territory on a third consecutive year, then we set a terrible precedent. We are asking for a level playing field.

For next year, it is really important that we focus on a developmental approach for the sector. We need coherence and we need to apply the funding that is there as aid measures for the fuel crisis, for example. This will enable us to compete on a level playing field with Europe. We are at an inflection point for the industry. There are many problems. The industry is suffering from decades of neglect. There is a failure of policy. The solution starts at home but we need to prioritise. We need to raise the ambition and we need to fight for these quotas. What fishermen need to survive are quotas that support the vessels. We cannot have resilience of vessels unless we have adequate quotas to cover our very small fleet. That is my position. It is about trying to raise the ambition and to encourage Ireland, at a political level, at a whole-of-government level and at a policy level, together with our civil servants, to start to fight hand in glove to defend the industry and to set targets that support development.

Development for the fleet is not directly relevant to the quota negotiations but it is relevant to decommissioning. We are decommissioning a big segment of our fleet. Alongside that we need to have a developmental approach where we are into a fleet renewal to address the issues of green compliance, decarbonisation and improved technical measures. I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak. I hope I have not been too critical but I think these are important points. It is an inflection point for the industry, which is at its lowest level. Brexit has whacked us. We have given away 40% of the total transfers of our fish to the UK. We have got nothing in return.