Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

Will the Minister of State agree that the Common Fisheries Policy has delivered a bad deal for Ireland historically and that potentially a valuable natural resource has been squandered or surrendered to Brussels? Despite the fact that we have nominal sovereignty over 11% of EU waters, with a catch quota system of 4%, we are being told that we are net beneficiaries of subsidies and so on from Europe. However, given the billions of euro worth of fish that have been caught in these waters by foreign vessels which has contributed significantly to the decline of the fish stocks in these waters, we are more of a contributor than a beneficiary in that regard.

Does the Minister of State agree that radical reform of the Common Fisheries Policy is urgently required and that part of such reform should involve reclaiming national jurisdiction over our fishing waters? In conjunction with what Deputy Eamon Ryan said, a nationally designed strategy should be implemented to ensure that our stocks are preserved and that, crucially, our fishing communities are beneficiaries in this respect. This would involve a radical shift from the current system where most of our processing is done abroad to a proactive approach towards a domestic processing sector. Will the Minister of State submit a proposal to the EU agenda to the effect that such radical reform be made a priority as a matter of urgency?

I welcome that the Minister of State said he is an advocate regarding the quota system. I concur with and would be supportive of his view that it should be determined not on the basis of fleet but on the basis of individual vessels.

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