Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is vitally important that we assert our rights. This Government and former Governments have been guilty of letting this issue slide, letting it sit and doing nothing about it because we have both been members of the European Union and it therefore did not matter. Now it has come into sharp focus again because of the likelihood of the UK withdrawing from the European Union, which is causing this dispute to raise its head again. Regardless of what the European Union has had to say on the matter, it has been criminal of successive Governments, including this one, to refuse to deal with this issue. It is a real problem, which is now coming home to roost. The Government will have to deal with and to live with it. The Government should be making sure that our rights are asserted and that our fishermen will be able to continue fishing in this area regardless of what happens in respect of Brexit.

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