Fishing Quotas: Statements
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-24
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Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (SF), Donegal

I had the chance last December to lay a number of facts on the table. I am going to repeat them. We need to speak out with passion about the rottenness of the Common Fisheries Policy and, I am sorry to say, the rottenness of the approach of the European Commission to all of this. Let us talk about the big five. These are the Dutch corporations that dominate so much quota across the European Union. The Common Fisheries Policy allows these huge corporations to legally buy up quota across the European Union. They control one sixth of the fish resource. That figure is probably even higher now, as it is from the last documented figures we have. The influence these corporations have is absolutely extraordinary. I am very clear that the big five Dutch-based corporations had more influence over the Netherlands, France, Germany and Poland than our country when it came to the Hague preferences. That is a shocking moment. I am sorry to say this, but our Taoiseach has been absent without leave in relation to all of this.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:40+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-24