Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 330: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his views on the claim that access by EU member states to the fishing waters of other member states, as embodied in Regulation 2141/70, was without legal basis as none of the relevant sections of the accession treaty actually refer to fisheries and that this situation was only rectified in Article 3 of the Maastricht treaty. [33961/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am not aware of the apparently historical issue raised by the Deputy. In any case this would not appear to impact upon access arrangements which are currently in place which were set down in the basic CFP Regulations of 1983, 1992 and 2002.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 331: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will propose, as part of the review of the Common Fisheries Policy, that states take primary responsibility for determining management rules within their own 200-mile limit. [33974/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Common Fisheries Policy is up for review in 2012 at the latest. An informal discussion, involving Fisheries Ministers, to mark the start of the debate on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy took place in Brussels on the 29th September 2008. This debate on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, in which I actively participated, is at a very early stage. The Commission will bring forward a Green Paper for discussion next year.

I will continue to work closely with the FIF (Federation of Irish Fishermen) to progress all matters of importance to the Irish fishing industry and have our national priorities taken on board as far as possible in the discussion on the Reform of the CFP following the publication of the Green Paper.