Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Seanad committee on its tremendous work in terms of the number of hearings it held and in regard to the compilation of this report. I particularly welcome that the report calls for special EU status for the North of Ireland and for the Good Friday Agreement to be protected.

I would like to focus my contribution on the announcement by the British Government that it intends to withdraw from the London fisheries convention, which will be a two-year process. This was an intentionally provocative move, which is of major concern to the fishing communities around our coast. This is a wake up call for the Irish Government in terms of how Brexit will proceed. I was surprised by this announcement in some respects, but not surprised in other respects. The election result in Britain did not endorse the desire of some within the Tory Party for a hard Brexit. As the Tory Party did not get the endorsement it wanted, I thought it would have had some reflection on that. On the other side, the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, MP, who made the announcement is a Brexiteer. As I said it was intentionally provocative. It is clearly part of the UK's negotiating ploy. For us, it is a reminder that we need to be steely in defending the interests of all of the Irish people.

The majority of people in the North of Ireland did not vote for Brexit. As part of the Good Friday Agreement, we insist that the status of the North of Ireland remain the same until the majority of the people of the North say otherwise. We insist on the majority dictating the future status of the North, but yet in this case we ignore and resist it. I welcome the findings of the committee and the recommendation of special status for the North, which I believe respects the wishes of the people of the North of Ireland as democratically voted for. We need to be more bolshy on this issue. If the Government had any doubt about whether soft diplomacy in terms of the British Government was not working, the announcement in regard to the London fisheries convention points to it.

Last night, at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture Food and the Marine I discussed the London fisheries convention with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, and pointed him to the need for a review of the common fisheries policy. Of all the sectors in our economy, the fisheries and agriculture sectors are the most threatened by Brexit. We need to open up the discussion of what the UK's proposed withdrawal from the London fisheries convention means for the common fisheries policy. At that meeting senior Department officials were about to tell us the level of catch by Irish boats in UK waters, which is very substantial and worrying, but, alarmingly, they could not tell us the level of catch by the Irish fleet in Irish waters. They could not tell us the overall percentage in terms of catch from Irish waters by fleets from other members states of the EU. This is a huge issue for our coastal communities. They feel they were sacrificed in the past for what governments regarded as the greater good. They do not have confidence, in light in particular of this announcement by the British Government, that their interests will be protected.

I ask the Minister of State to give a commitment that in co-operation with her colleagues she will defend the interests of our fisheries communities around the coast and to confirm that regardless of what emerges from the Brexit process, including the UK withdrawal from the London fisheries convention, the Government will seek a better deal and a fairer deal for our fisheries communities than was secured for them in the past. I again commend the committee on its excellent work.