We obviously had the chance at the committee yesterday to go through what a disaster this outcome is and how it cannot stand. The Common Fisheries Policy has been deeply unfair to Ireland's fishing and coastal communities throughout the years. What happened with Brexit has rightly been described as a betrayal of those communities. It was a power grab and I will deal with some of the companies at the heart of this soon. What happened at the Fisheries Council now has to be the final insult. There has to be a complete change in approach from our Government in dealing with our European partners when it comes to the Common Fisheries Policy. It is so serious. I will start with the Hague preferences. The Hague preferences were put in place in 1976. Their origin is Annex VII of the EEC Council Resolution, 3 November 1976. They were in place for Ireland and Britain as a quid pro quo for access to our waters. Our waters have given huge wealth to fishing fleets across Europe. They are some of the richest fishing waters in the world. The Hague preferences are central to that. That was a veneer of fairness and it was deployed from time to time over the years where necessary. To suggest that the Hague preferences can just be done away with is absolutely unacceptable. The Minister of State must use every single legal instrument available to him to challenge this. The member states who united to block us invoking the Hague preferences know very well that this is not about taking fish away from them. This is about a balance for all the fish they have taken from our waters over the years. They know that very well. I believe that there has unfortunately been a meek response from Irish Governments. I do not include the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, in that, but before him there was a meek resistance to what was happening for too many years. They believe that can continue. The Minister of State needs to prove them wrong. He needs to prove that they cannot do this. Let us talk about why it was that the Netherlands, France, Germany and Poland united to outrageously attack our fishing and coastal communities when they know what happened after Brexit. They know we took the biggest hit from Brexit. Burden sharing never happened. They know that and they would do that to us. It was said yesterday by my colleague, Deputy Conor D. McGuinness, and I agree with him, that the Minister of State needs to bring every ambassador from those four countries in to meet him urgently. He needs to make it clear what they did is seen as an attack on our people by a member state. I will tell him why I believe they did it. I want to talk about the big five. The big five are referred to as an extremely powerful oligopoly. These are corporations that co-operate and work together, and that have a collective value of €2.4 billion. It is estimated that by buying up quota across the European Union they have one in six of the fish caught under their control. They are huge. I will name them. They are Parlevliet and van der Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family. The big one is Parlevliet and van der Plas. Let us talk about them. When I talk about the big five there has been much reportage of this. This is not a secret. It is widely known. I have an absolutely damning report from earlier this year into the actions of these corporations. At the centre of it is Parlevliet and van der Plas. I also have a report from a couple of years ago from Follow the Money, which did an exposé on the massive control this company has, which is led by Dirk Parlevliet. This company is valued at €1.5 billion. That is probably conservative because there is a lack of accountability about quota allocation across Europe. Nobody can tell us definitively who actually has it. It is estimated at €1.5 billion. This is the biggest fish company in Europe. It has huge influence. It is estimated that the big five control 230 vessels. They own the biggest super trawlers in the world. When you look up our west coast you see these super trawlers vacuuming up the fish in our waters. This has been going on for far too long. I am asking the Minister of State to take every legal action at his disposal to challenge what happened with the Hague preferences. It just cannot stand, but he must also call out the big five, particularly Parlevliet and van der Plas. There is no doubt that these five companies, but particularly P and P, as it is abbreviated, had more influence over the actions of Germany, France, Poland and their own country of the Netherlands, than Ireland did. The lack of respect for a fellow member state that suffered so egregiously after Brexit and has struggled so much with our declining allocation of fish quota, is outrageous. However, it gets worse than just what happens within the European Union. These companies have huge interests in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. These companies have also benefited from the reckless over-fishing that has left the mackerel species on the precipice. They also benefit from the deal with Norway to get access to the cod because they have interests there. Everywhere you turn these corporations are winning through. This is corruption. This is a fundamental attack on our democracy and the European Union. Our Government cannot stand for it. Our Government must stand up and speak loudly about what is happening here. Have no doubt that what took place in the Fisheries Council was utter corruption. Corporations have united together using the weaknesses and fundamental flaws of the Common Fisheries Policy to buy out quota to recklessly over-fish through Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Then there are their interests in Britain. They have huge interests in Britain. What has happened in recent days? Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway and the UK have united and made an agreement about mackerel. They did not pay any heed to the science. This agreement is way below what has been agreed at the Fisheries Council. Again, I ask the Minister of State what he is going to do about that. Britain has signed up to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. It must be aligned to the Common Fisheries Policy. How can it make a deal and enable recklessness and then benefit from a deal with the European Union? There has to be consistency here. To summarise, we have our fishing and coastal communities decimated. They were the rule takers. They played by the rules. They followed the science. We have a small number of massive corporations based in the Netherlands that have huge influence over member states. This is not environmentally friendly policy. This is not about that. This is not about what the Common Fisheries Policy states about social and economic impacts being considered by every member state before they allocate quota. It is stitched into the Common Fisheries Policy. What has happened here is an outrageous attack on our sovereignty and our people. In the time I have I left I again draw the Minister of State's attention to the 2016 Supreme Court decision in Barlow v Minister for Agriculture. It is clear from that decision that the Supreme Court says that Article 10 means that we do have control over our waters as well as of other natural resources. I ask the Minister of State to get legal advice about what happened with the Hague preferences, Article 10 and the Supreme Court ruling and to take legal action to defend our interests. It will not be enough to set up a task force. Of course, financial resources are needed, but when these boats in a number of years’ time need to go back to fish, there needs to be fish there. I ask the Minister of State to do everything he can.

Sentiment score: 0.05