Ms Sinéad McSherry:

I thank Deputy Mythen. I may not have been clear on the negotiations piece so I will comment on that first. The EU holds the competence for those negotiations and naturally Ireland feeds into the EU position. When it comes to the actual negotiations, however, they are conducted by the EU. I want to be clear on that. Our Minister does make his views clear at Council level, however.

The Deputy mentioned Ireland being in a position to leverage certain things. It is but, to go back to a comment I made to Deputy Collins, we are subject to qualified majority voting on fishery matters, so we cannot veto certain things.

On the value of the mackerel and its use, I can understand why it would be particularly difficult for nations that do not have the mackerel quota to see mackerel used for fish meal as opposed to human consumption. An issue the industry has highlighted to us extremely vigorously is the inflated quotas of third countries.

I am not aware of the source of the profitability figure the Deputy mentioned, so I will not be able to comment on it. However, the processing sector is in a state of flux. It is a matter of raw material and being able to add value, and that is where much of the investment has been made over recent years. It is particularly a question of being able to get a higher-volume margin for the product, working with processors.

Could Deputy Mythen explain his question on third-country vessels fishing without a quota in our waters? Perhaps I did not understand it.

Having a dedicated Minister for the marine and an Irish MEP on the PECH are not matters I can speak about.