Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Go raibh maith agat, a Aire Stáit. Earlier in the meeting, before our witnesses were here, I gave the apologies of Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher, who is Vice Chair of this committee. He is attending a meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in London and cannot be here. He did ask me to put a number of questions to the Minister of State on his behalf. The first relates to Ireland's position in these negotiations. Is it the position of the Irish Government that Norway will be denied access to fish blue whiting west of Ireland and in Irish waters, and that it would not support quota swaps between Norway and the European Union when it comes to blue whiting? Is that a position that the Irish Government has adopted? Is that the Minister of State's position going into these sets of negotiations over the coming weeks and months? The second part of that question relates to what we have discussed here, namely, the abuse of shared stocks by Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, amounting to 1 million tonnes in overfishing over five years, which I believe is about €4 billion worth of overfishing. Is it the position of the Irish Government and of the Minister of State that Ireland should invoke or seek to have the European Union utilise the Regulation No. 1026/1999 powers that are available to it in terms of its trade competency to restrict trade with Norway, Faroe Islands and Iceland for this gross, irresponsible and reckless overfishing of a shared resource?