Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

No, I accept that. About 2,000 horses a year are slaughtered, that is, 65 or so a week. It is quite clear that the system we have of identification can be circumvented if people are determined to do it. I mentioned earlier about the individual we have asked to review this with us. I do not want a long process with a six-month public consultation. I want something that is going to change the system, insofar as we can, and as quickly as we can. There is also, however, an EU dimension to this. Many of the events we saw on the programme took place in other member states and the system we have is broadly the same. It is at least as good as the system in other member states but as it is quite clear now that it is inadequate right across the European Union, we have to do something about that.

On the fishing, I am acutely aware of where Deputy Mythen is from and his interest in it. I used crude language when I mentioned fish earlier on because I meant quota. The outcome of the Brexit negotiation for Irish fishermen was a 15% reduction in quota and for some of the pelagic species, it was 25%. That means it is a significant reduction in the quantity of fish that fishermen can legally catch. You are then faced with a situation of determining how you resolve that issue and making sure that people within the industry have the potential to make a reasonable living. It was not fish stocks I was talking about; it was quota. As under Common Fisheries Policy rules, other member states of course have access to European Union waters, that is the reality and there is nothing we can do about that. When you ask do we pay equal attention to fisheries matters-----