The Irish fishing industry was worth €1.2 billion prior to the Brexit trade deal and created 16,000 jobs scattered around coastal communities. The Irish fishing industry caught 60% of its mackerel in UK waters but the new negotiated deal means we will be reduced to approximately 13%. This deal is completely negative for Ireland. For instance, Belgium and Spain will lose less than 1,000 tonnes per annum in the pelagic sector, while Ireland will lose a staggering 23,496 tonnes. Surely, this shows the Irish Government was asleep at the wheel during recent negotiations. The Taoiseach said the deal, after it was signed, would impact negatively on our fishing industry, while President Macron announced the deal done by Mr. Michel Barnier was good for French fishermen. What exactly is the deal that was done with regard to Irish fishing? For the sake of the Irish fishing industry and the thousands of rural coastal jobs, please do not announce another decommissioning scheme as every Irish fisherman wants to fish the waters like they always have.

One of the first meetings I had this year was with representative bodies of the fishing industry and the fishing co-operatives. We always knew Brexit was going to have a negative impact on our fishing industry, principally because of the high percentages, particularly of the pelagic stock, being fished in British waters and we were particularly concerned about our mackerel and prawn stocks and others. We have mitigated what could have been a far worse impact and because of our close proximity to the UK and the fact we fish so much in British waters, the impact has been more negative for us. The challenge now is to see if we can ameliorate that but also, more importantly, if can we do everything we possibly can to support the fishing industry and those involved in the fishing sector from primary right through the entire production sector, as well as the communities the fishing industry serves, in terms of economic developments and supports.