Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the fishing deal the Government agreed to which is now seen as the greatest political sell-out of any industry that any Government has ever agreed to in the history of our State. This sell-out has angered fishing communities beyond words from Union Hall to Castletownbere, all along the coast to Donegal. New evidence in replies from a series of parliamentary questions confirms that the Government blindly supported the EU negotiation mandate in respect of the Brexit negotiations. In doing so, the Government betrayed not only the sector and coastal communities but the entire country.

This provides infuriating confirmation that the Irish fishing industry must now pay a huge price for our Government and Ministers opting to tow Brussel's line in these Brexit negotiations. The shocking and utter lack of engagement and dialogue with the EU side, on behalf of the Irish fishing sector, by the Government and the Minister in the months leading up to the Brexit deal is now glaringly obvious.

In fact, at his first EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on 21 September last, the Minister failed to raise the Irish fishing sector's pre-Brexit concerns. At his second meeting since becoming Minister, on 19 and 20 October, he again failed to table or raise the implications of Brexit for the sector. Instead, he chose to engage in a rather meaningless three-way bilateral meeting with fisheries ministers from France, Denmark and the Netherlands. Astonishingly, at the third Council meeting on 16 November 2020, weeks before a deal was to be struck, no fisheries items were raised. One would be forgiven for wondering what was being discussed at such meetings.

Further meetings attended by our Minister on 27 November and 15 and 16 December, at which the fisheries element of the Brexit negotiations was discussed, point to the Minister acting as a protector of European quota interests rather than the protector of the Irish share of the quota. All in all, this new information about the Minister's and the Government's activities in protecting Irish fishermen's rights illustrates the complete blindness with which the Taoiseach and the Minister trusted the EU negotiators. It also clearly demonstrates that the Minister and the Government strategically and deliberately chose not to stand up for Irish fishing interests. Instead, they sought praise from the Brussels elite. Sadly, at a time when Irish fishermen and women were depending solely on the Government to protect their interests, that did not occur.

In an overall context, data from Dublin City University estimate the Irish share of total fish catch in the Irish maritime zone is only 20%, which means that the other 80% is caught by foreign vessels. The Brexit fisheries deal means that Irish vessels operating in UK waters were hit with massive quota reductions while other EU countries got sweet deals. Despite the fact that foreign vessels continue to extract 80% of the fish from Irish waters, we have a Government and a Minister who are hell-bent on forging ahead with wide-scale decommissioning of the Irish fleet. This is being dressed up as some sort of review process. All the while, foreign vessels will be allowed to continue fishing in our waters. The sector was only seeking a fairer distribution of quota - nothing more, nothing less - and it was betrayed in that regard. The Government should have made the decision to adopt a much tougher stance during the Brexit negotiations. Why did it choose to let the Irish fishing sector down? Instead of forging ahead with decommissioning, will the Taoiseach give us a guarantee that he will seek a greater share of the quota for Irish vessels in the Irish maritime zone in order to make up for the mess created by the Government's own inaction?

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