Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, if he has been listening to me over the last months and again today, our position at all times has been to defend the fishing sector tooth and nail, because we very much value it. It might be easy to present that as a sell-out. Our approach was to ensure that it was prioritised. If the Deputy has been assessing how the negotiation evolved and the Brexit debate from the outset in Britain, they emphasised how they were coming after their fish and it was a priority, while our priority at all times was to defend the sector. That was crucial to ensuring that fishing was the last item to be decided, because we would not give on it and were holding a resolute line. The British were looking for 100% of the fish caught in British waters and that was confined to 25% with Britain having left the European Union. There is no doubt that we are committed to working with the sector to try to address the matter.

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