Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)

I find it difficult to understand, if there was an Irish input, why it was not listened to. Is no one listening to what we are saying on behalf of the people? Surely anybody who represents them would have come back with something much more substantial than what is contained in this document. It is not the radical new era the country and its fishermen need or the one that will ensure the achievement of the ambitious but very necessary targets set out in Food Harvest 2020. Unless the whole Common Fisheries Policy environment changes, we cannot achieve the targets set out in Food Harvest 2020 or the changes outlined in the management of our harbours policy.

This is a foundation industry on which so much can be built, but the European Union has to loosen the chains and take off the handcuffs. It is tying us up and what it has come up with is nothing more than fiddling about the edges. We need to get back in contact with the Commission. It is not just a question of booting out what is wrong in these proposals but of saying to the Commission that what is needed is a total re-write of the design for a new era. We must go back to the drawing board on the Common Fisheries Policy. I would negotiate with the Commission on what was good, right and fair. However, it must take into account the fact we have an invaluable natural resource which we must protect on behalf of the people. We should never have sold it from day one and must now get it back.

The Commission's proposals in regard to the privatisation of quota - I deliberately and advisedly call it such - will further exacerbate the problem of fish stock depletion. The radical reform needed is not evident, nor is the re-write needed, and there is no suggestion it will be done. We should be looking at this issue on an island-wide basis, as well a Twenty-six Counties basis. We need to go back to the Commission and say this is not good enough, that we will not wear it and that it has to be changed. We will support the Minister when he opposes the more obnoxious parts of the proposals put before us.

See this speech in context