The treatment of Irish fishermen's rights has been ignored for decades by successive Governments. When we negotiate in Europe and have to hand over any of our rights in these negotiations, we have been handing over the rights of our fishermen and the Irish Sea bit by bit. This has meant our fishermen have had to travel out of their own waters as they fight for a livelihood and watch frustratedly as foreign vessels flood the Irish Sea every day without any rule or regulation to prevent them from doing so. Only two months ago, a small crisis erupted in Irish seas as two Irish fishing vessels from Northern Ireland were detained for fishing within six nautical miles of the Irish coast. Our Government then frantically jumped through every guideline so we could hand over the only rights we had to the coast around Ireland. I was called unpatriotic by a Minister in the Government when I and other Independents pleaded with the Government to stop the panicked handover, and to put the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017 through pre-legislative scrutiny so as to give us time to weigh up all options. However, the Independents in the Dáil were not listened to and the Government, together with Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, panicked and gave away the rights of Irish fishermen once again.

Fast forward just two months, and we now see the shocking error we have made as the Scottish Government has made it very clear to this Government that it intends to fully protect its fishermen going forward. It has clearly instructed our Government that it will ban all Irish fishing vessels within 12 miles of Rockall, an area where Irish fishing vessels had previously operated unhindered, fishing haddock, squid and other species. Since this has become public, we have heard calls from all over the Irish political spectrum to intervene but many fishermen have rung me to say these are crocodile tears, as the time to stand up and be noticed was a few months ago when these same politicians handed over our fishing rights without the blink of an eyelid. The frantic rushing through of the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill in the Dáil a couple of months ago left huge unanswered questions. All I or any of my Independent colleagues ever wanted was more time to look at that Bill in more detail to see if we could negotiate a better deal. We were ignored by our Government, however, and now we are in a serious situation where the Scottish want us out. We also potentially face further crisis in the fishing industry regarding Brexit, because the British have made it clear that they also want Irish vessels out of their waters after Brexit. The fishermen of this country deserve honest answers. How long has this Government been aware of the Scottish issues with Rockall? Was it aware before the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill was rushed through the Dáil two months ago? Was the Taoiseach aware of this problem? Were Fianna Fáil or Sinn Féin made aware of the potential Scottish Rockall crisis in their negotiations around agreeing to vote in favour of the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill two months ago? In my view, this is the only bargaining chip Ireland had, and we frantically handed over further fishermen's rights inside the Dáil two months ago. I am convinced that if any political party in this country which had the interests of the people at heart knew of this problem in Scotland, no one in his or her right mind would have thrown away our rights without first having fishermen's rights protected elsewhere.

I do not agree with the Deputy's assessment that the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill was rushed through the Dáil. There was no guillotine, nor has any legislation been guillotined in this Dáil, which has now been in existence for three years. Adequate time was provided for the discussion of that legislation, and there was no attempt to curtail or limit debate on it. The Government was informed in relation to the position the Scottish Government has taken. The Tánaiste and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, were informed several months ago that Scotland had a view and an opinion that it had exclusive rights to fishing within 12 miles of Rockall, that it was minded to enforce that, and that it would come back to us and give us notice before it was enforced. That happened in the last week or so. I cannot say whether Fianna Fáil or Sinn Féin were aware of that. The Deputy would have to ask them.

We were not, and the Taoiseach knows we were not.

We were not. He knows that well.

I do not know that.

They are all in it together.

The Deputy is very touchy today. Deputy Michael Collins's question about Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin has been answered for him. Ireland's position regarding Rockall is that there is no basis for excluding Irish fishing vessels from Rockall waters, as they are legitimately pursuing EU fishing opportunities and have done so unhindered for decades. We believe any concerns should be handled through dialogue rather than universal enforcement action. The House will be aware that the Tánaiste recently received a formal letter of notice from the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, stating that Scotland would deploy vessels in the Rockall area to take enforcement action against Irish vessels found within 12 miles of Rockall from last week onwards. Jurisdiction over the 12-mile area has long been disputed. The UK claims sovereignty over Rockall and thus a 12-mile territorial limit around it. The Irish Government position has been and remains that we do not recognise this claim, that the waters around Rockall are part of the UK's exclusive economic zone and they accordingly form part of the European Union waters under the Common Fisheries Policy, to which the principle of equal access for all European vessels, including Irish vessels, applies. Irish vessels have operated unhindered in the Rockall zone for many decades, fishing haddock, squid, and other species. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine met representatives of the fishing sector on Friday to inform them of the letter from the Scottish authorities but also to confirm that Ireland's position on Rockall has not changed. The industry was appreciative of that engagement but was also extremely concerned about the possibility that unjustified enforcement action might be taken against it. In engaging with the Scottish authorities, Ireland's position has been that there is no basis for excluding our vessels from the Rockall waters as they are pursuing EU fishing opportunities in these waters and have done so unhindered for decades. It has been agreed that a process of intensified engagement will now take place, led by senior officials from both Administrations.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. I speak to fishermen from my constituency of Cork South-West daily. Whether they are inshore fishermen or fisherwomen or work on larger trawlers, they are furious with political parties that time and again have thrown away any rights Irish fishermen have. They want a stand-alone Minister in this country whose sole responsibility is to fight for their rights, the same as in other European countries. Every call for fishermen by myself and others has gone unheeded. Only last year, I made call after call for Ireland to apply for a bluefin tuna quota like its fellow European nations. This was resisted until the Government was eventually embarrassed into doing so.

My calls for a cull of seals have gone ignored. The livelihoods of inshore fishermen in Castletownbere and throughout west Cork have been destroyed by the large number of seals at sea.

The throwing away of our rights within six nautical miles was the last straw for many fishermen. We can now see the major fallout for them. The Bill was rushed through the Dáil. There was no pre-legislative scrutiny and no time given for us to discuss it. It was cut short. Why was the Dáil never told about the Rockall dispute with Scotland two months ago during our short discussions on the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2017 when there had been ongoing issues since 2017? Had we known of them during our discussions, surely we would have tried to negotiate a deal that would have protected the rights of Irish fishermen for once.

I again thank the Deputy. I am afraid I just do not see how the Sea-Fisheries (Amendment) Act 2019 relates to the Rockall dispute. This is a question of the Scottish Government, on behalf of the UK or, rather, off its own bat, asserting sovereignty over Rockall and thereby claiming an exclusive zone of 12 miles around that. We take a different view. When the exclusive economic zones were drawn, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea was applied, and that treats uninhabited, uninhabitable rocks such as Rockall as if they do not exist. We accept that Rockall is in the United Kingdom's exclusive economic zone - everyone does - but what we do not accept is that Rockall has a 12-mile exclusive limit around it. For so long as the United Kingdom is part of the European Union, these are European waters and Irish fishermen are entitled to fish for their quota and for non-quota species in any part of that UK exclusive economic zone, but obviously with Brexit that will change. One thing that is often not fully appreciated is that Irish fishermen take a lot of fish out of UK waters. Perhaps 35% of all the fish that we take comes out of UK waters, including some of the most valuable species such as shrimp, mackerel and so on. That is why in any negotiation around Brexit we are going to need to do a lot of work to limit the damage to our fishery sector and to make sure that our rights are protected.

It seems that the time might be ripe for the Wolfe Tones to relaunch their record.

I had never heard that song until two days ago.

It is kind of catchy.

Sing us a few bars.