Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister will probably be aware of the press statement that was issued by the Irish Fish Producers Organisation, IFPO, yesterday.

I am sure the group thought long and hard before issuing it but I do not see how it had any choice. The key demand is to ban Norway and other non-EU states from fishing in Irish waters unless there is a reciprocal exchange in fish quotas for us. When he was here last year, the Minister criticised the behaviour of Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, for blatant overfishing. These concerns have been raised repeatedly. I am looking at correspondence from the Pelagic Advisory Council. This correspondence was sent to Ms Charlina Vitcheva, the director general of the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, DG MARE. I have correspondence from August 2022, April 2023 and July 2024. The council has repeatedly expressed its serious concerns about inflated quotas and the practice of overfishing with no regard to ICES. This is a migratory species. It is a precious resource that spawns off the coast of Ireland and then works its way up the Atlantic. It is shocking there have been no repercussions, despite this utterly reckless behaviour, which, in fairness to him, the Minister has spoken out about, and that, indeed, they are only rewarded.

The IFPO talks in its statement about a deal the EU signed that permits Norway to fish almost 200,000 metric tonnes of blue whiting in Ireland's EU fishing waters, waters that fall under the jurisdiction of the Common Fisheries Policy. In comparison, Ireland is permitted to catch less than 60,000 metric tonnes. In terms of value, Norway's deal is worth about €50 million while Ireland's quota in our own waters is worth €15 million. The Irish fisherman must play by the rules because they fall under the Common Fisheries Policy while reckless rule-breakers get rewarded with multiples of our quota of blue whiting.

I do not believe the Minister will dispute anything I have said. It is really sickening for an industry that lost so much as a result of Brexit to now face another 22% cut. The Minister estimates this could amount to approximately 100 jobs lost. He will know where those jobs are lost, which is mostly, but not solely, in our own constituency of Donegal.

I want talk about what we need to do about this. There have been repeated warnings and those warnings have come true, which will have devastating consequences for our industry. As to the approach, the decisions on allocations and so on are made by qualified majority voting. Is there any form of veto? Is there any action we can take to convey our concern - in fairness, the Minister has spoken out about this - and ask how in the name of God you can recklessly ignore the science and recklessly overfish, with devastating consequences for a member state of the European Union, and yet that very Union and Commission rewards those involved with an allocation of blue whiting? This cannot stand. What actions can the Minister take to raise the ante about all of this at European level?