Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13
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Conor D. McGuinness (SF), Waterford

The AGRIFISH meeting in December last year at which quotas were set for this year for the entire European fishing fleet was the deepest and most severe shock that the Irish fishing industry has ever faced. The industry is on its knees, it is on the ropes and its demise is imminent unless there is action take.
On 3 December, the Taoiseach met with Irish fishing industry representatives. On 11 December, the Taoiseach met with the Working Group of Committee Cathaoirligh at which I implored him to give his political support and take action to build political support at European level. A couple of days later, Ireland was isolated at European level and the Irish fishing industry was, once again, sacrificed on the altar of European commercial fishing interests.
My colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn, submitted a freedom of information request to the Taoiseach's office seeking all outgoing correspondence, calls, logs and memorandums relating to it. It seems the Taoiseach did not lift a finger, lift a phone or do a tap to build political support.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-13