Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. I certainly got the impression during the recent leadership contest in the Minister of State's party that the now Taoiseach was acknowledging the fact that there needed to be additional resources in terms of people and expertise allocated to deal with this challenge. I would have hoped that as a result of that there would have been a recognition in the Department that more support was needed specifically to work on this issue. While I understand and accept the point that it is an issue for everyone in the agricultural sector and in the Department, the dedicated unit and particularly the State agencies like Bord Bia need to have the necessary resources to meet this challenge and they have not had them up to now.

I wish to comment on the fishing sector. We have 11,000 people employed directly in the fishing industry across the country, many of them in my county, and the industry accounts for more than €0.5 billion in exports. While there is the challenge of market access and tariffs in regard to agriculture, there is also that challenge in regard to fishing but there is also the massive challenge of access to fishing waters. The UK has made this a big priority in terms of taking back their waters, as it were, and that makes it a very specific challenge for us with respect to how that is negotiated and the approach we take to it.

What approach and efforts has the Department taken towards protecting our position with regard to access to waters in terms of the Minister's engagement with the negotiating team to ensure that a positive outcome achieved?

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