Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I do appreciate the fact that we have a dedicated Minister of State for fisheries, which has been a welcome development, who is engaging and listening to our communities. We now need to use that resource with all the knowledge, working hand-in-hand with the Irish industry, to confront this injustice once and for all and to say to the European Commission that what happened with Brexit was so wrong.

We did not have burden sharing and we carried so much of that weight. I am glad the Minister mentioned the UK. It is a party to this recklessness. It benefited from Brexit. It got an agreement that was not based on relative stability or track record. It was based on what is called zonal attachment and those communities closest to the fishing waters. This is what we would love to have in Ireland. It is what Britain got and it cannot have its cake and eat it. This is about countries which I respect, such as Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. I have nothing against their people or the British people but this is reckless behaviour. It is unjust and unfair. We have to call it out and it has to stop. We need to have fairness and justice. We need to protect jobs in our vulnerable coastal fishing communities.

See this speech in context