Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will try. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle might stop the clock too.

Second, there is a perfect storm at the moment for the shellfish sector. There is Covid, Brexit and all the problems getting goods in and out. My understanding is that, particularly with farmed oysters, the price has literally gone through the floor, although some other shellfish are not as badly affected. Is there any plan to give assistance to that sector? Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the Department of Finance did not see fit to include them in the CRSS scheme, so they do not even get their overheads, never mind the fact they are holding stock that is very difficult to sell at any margin, and the drop in price for oysters is quite scary.

The third issue concerns consultation on the small amount we are going to have left to give out. The quota management advisory committee has 1,198 boats registered. The vast majority of people work in the inshore fleet but while the producer organisations have four representatives on that committee, I understand 80% of the boats are inshore boats and they have one representative. Will the Minister consider increasing the representation for the vast number of inshore fisher-people? It should not be done by the output of the boats but by the number of the people engaged in the industry.

Fourth, I again thank the Minister for a parliamentary reply which stated that the Common Fisheries Policy is renegotiated every ten years. He gave me a warning that it is majority rule but, of course, many countries do not have a big stake in North Atlantic fishing. The Minister also told me in a parliamentary reply that our share of the fishing waters has gone from 10% to 12%, even though we are the country, with Germany, that lost the biggest percentage of quota. Therefore, the water we have has gone up proportionately and we have done very badly on quota. It is not a question of success or failure; it is a question of trying. Can the Minister guarantee that, in those negotiations, he will bang the table hard and that he will outline clearly the historic injustice done to this country in the Common Fisheries Policy, and that Ireland will keep shouting about the injustice of this until justice is done? I remember being very impressed at a European Council meeting I attended – an arts meeting, as it happens - where the Greeks were still giving out about artefacts that had been stolen from them in the 19th century, long before the EU existed. Eventually, that issue got on the agenda. It is time we started banging the table. There is an old saying that the crying baby gets the bottle. It is time we started wailing in regard to the injustice of fishing.

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