I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on the fishing sector. As we debate this today we look at the state of the fishing sector in Ireland due to the policies of various EU Commissions since Brexit. As a result of the Brexit deal, we lost 26% of the value of our quotas overnight in December 2020. For that we cannot point a finger at the Commission in total, but I can point a finger at former Commissioner Barnier, who came into this House. I have said this before, and I repeat it. He looked me straight in the eye when I said how concerned I was because he was negotiating on behalf of the Commission. He said we would have no difficulty with the fishing sector because fishing and trade would be inextricably linked. Perhaps I was naive enough to believe that when Brexit was signed off on. I can blame him, but I can also blame the Government of the day. I recommended that we should veto Brexit. It might have been a big call, but if we threatened to veto Brexit, we would have had a different outcome. Reference was made to the Hague preferences. For many years I attended the council of fisheries meetings in Brussels, particularly the attacks on quotas. I was a Member of the European Parliament and a full member of the fisheries committee. I waited over those nights and met with the industry. The Hague preferences were always and ever invoked. There were times we had to go away and negotiate. We are talking now about alliances. We could not form an alliance to ensure we could have the Hague preferences invoked. It would have been so important to us. That brings me to the tax and quotas this year and the reduction in mackerel of 70%. It defies belief that 70% was recommended by ICES for the coastal states but, on the other hand, there was a 48% secondary proposal for Iceland, Norway, the Faroes and the UK. That makes no sense. It does not say a lot for the European negotiators that they allowed this to happen, but all is not yet lost. I know from experience that the TACs and quotas have to be written in stone by 31 March, so we have another four to five weeks to do that. The Minister of State made the case yesterday at the Council meeting. He must continue to make it. He has to work with the alliances that are there in order to try and convince the European Commission that we should not have to accept a 70% reduction while the countries to which I refer only have to accept a reduction of 48%. That is the advice that came from ICES. In all the years that I have been going to and coming back from Brussels, never once did I experience something where the proposals for TACs and quotas proposed by ICES became the actual measures. There was always room for manoeuvre. Before we left Dublin, we knew that it would not be the proposal but a percentage of that. That did not change this year. What happened? The big countries, the Commission and, I have to make a political charge here, the Commissioner threw little Ireland under the bus. It was wrong of them to do that. When I was in my office, I listened to Deputy Mac Lochlainn speak about the big countries. I knew all of those people. I phoned them and they said "Well, this is business". In fairness, their countries made the case and they have the large percentage of the TACs and quotas. The task force established by the Minister of State must step up to the challenge. I have been involved in the fishing sector since I was a student working in Burtonport. Working in it helped me through college. From there, I progressed to managing the factory in Killybegs. We set up a fish canning factory in Dungloe. I have been involved in fishing all my life, but this is the worst year I have ever experienced. This matter could have been dealt with better if we had support in Europe, but there was no support. The coastal counties and areas where there is no alternative source of employment have been decimated. We have to ensure that the task force looks after the interests of all those who have been affected. Let me now make reference to the bureaucracy that exists in this country. Between landing, fish processing and exporting, we are the only country in the EU where someone has to complete 14 sets of documents in order to declare returns. Everything is now on computers, and they have to do that physically from the time that they get in. Even the drivers have to be computer literate. They have to do that when they get into the trucks. We are the only country that does this. How can we say it is a Common Fisheries Policy when other countries do not have to do this? That is a question to be answered by the SFPA. We will have an opportunity to do so again in the committee. There seems to be an anti-fisherman attitude in this country. Regardless of whether it is the Department or the SFPA, they see fishermen as rogues. I have been in this industry all my life and I will stand up in any place on any platform and put my hand on my heart to say that they are decent, honourable people-----

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-----who told me many times that they did not want to exceed the quotas because then they were selling black fish, which brings down the price of the others. They are honourable people who get very little funding from the State when they go out to buy their boats and provide employment. It is so sad to look at the ports where I worked and processed fish. I processed fish in ports from Clogherhead to Dunmore East to Cobh to Castletownbere and up the coast to Rossaveal, Killybegs and Burtonport and on the Isle of Man. The people I saw were all hard-working individuals, but there is an attitude to them in the Department and at SFPA level. Any Deputy who is a member of the committee will realise that there seems to be such an attitude towards fishermen. As long as I am here, I will stand up for the interests of fishermen. Fishermen invest heavily. I hope the task force that the Minister of State has established with the support of his colleagues in government is not a box-ticking exercise. There must be positive results coming from that. The industry has gone through very difficult times, but this is the worst period I have seen in my lifetime. There is a real question as to how the European Commission allowed four countries to cancel the Hague preferences is a real question. Where the Minister of State finds himself is a lonely place to be. I have been there and done that. You are fighting an uphill battle. The Minister of State tried his utmost to secure the support of other countries to ensure that the Hague preferences would not be cancelled. The Commission has a duty to protect small member states. What occurred in Brussels before Christmas breaches 50 years of good practice and good faith. How can we and the sector have confidence in the Commission? I have heard some people suggest that we should await the review of the CFP. I would not be holding my breath. I have been there and done that at the fisheries committee when I was its vice president. I led delegations to Iceland. There was a time I thought that the Commission and Commissioner Damanaki were representing Iceland. She was doing more to support Iceland than she was to represent the country she was appointed to represent as a member of the Commission. I would have to make the political charge that the Danish presidency was not impartial and did not assist Ireland. I do not know whether or not this has been done but I again recommend that a letter of protest be sent by the Minister of State or, if necessary, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to express our disappointment at the way we were treated last year. Let us be positive, look ahead and say that the Minister of State has our support with a view to ensuring that the task force will take all the elements into consideration. I believe some time, but not that much, will be needed to come up with proposals before they are finalised. Everybody in the industry should have an input into that.

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