Mr. Patrick Murphy:

I thank the members for their excellent questions. Deputy Whitmore asked if we stay within the scientific biological limits. We do.

As I said earlier, the problem is the coastal states all agree with the scientific advice. Afterwards, as my colleagues have outlined very well, other rogue countries keep taking more fish well above the biological limit. We suffer as a result because we successively get cuts. To give some figures on this, our mackerel quota in 2019 was 55,313 tonnes. In 2020, it went up to 78,000 tonnes. In 2026, we are now facing that being reduced to 11,000 tonnes. This is not because of the activities of our vessels in our waters or waters anywhere else - we stick to the biological and scientific advice - yet this is what we are facing in 2026. This is not just exclusive to one fishery. The cuts from everywhere else are right across the board.

The other question asked was whether I thought Ireland was robustly defending us. We heard it in the last discussion on Brexit. Under the scientific, technical and economic committee for fisheries, STECF, valuation, we paid 40% of the payment in the Brexit TCA deal, which we are signed into for another 12 years. This is having huge impacts on all the other fleets and stocks, even though we reduced our fleet last time by 39 boats. It was actually 40 boats because another vessel owner sold his vessel in Castletownbere. As a fishing industry and indigenous people, we have been decimated by our involvement in the Common Fisheries Policy in Europe. A legal challenge was asked about. The whole Common Fisheries Policy that is under review now should be legally challenged because relative stability has not worked. No socioeconomic impact statement was carried out on what Mr. Barnier agreed for the likes of Ireland and the devastating impacts it would have on our fishers. This will continue.

The help we got following Brexit was approximately €1.1 billion, yet we are facing four times that impact in 2026 due to what is happening to our industry. We are in serious trouble. Legally speaking, it is crazy that we are resource rich and the fish are in our waters, as Deputy Whitmore said, yet our vessels have to go elsewhere. This happened in Newfoundland when other fleets came in and decimated the cod stocks on the Grand Banks. This is happening again in our time and in our generation. The committee's members are the politicians. They are seeing this is and witnessing it happen in front of their eyes. We are losing our fishing industry around our coastline. Something legal definitely has to be looked at, not just for the coastal states, but for the entire Common Fisheries Policy. We will be the sacrificial lamb, once again, under the Common Fisheries Policy.

I will leave it there with those stark words.