asked the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry the present position regarding the establishment of a 50-mile exclusive fishery limit for Irish fishermen.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fifty-mile Fishery Limit.
35.
Negotiations on a revised common fisheries policy are still in progress at this time.
I assume that the Minister is able to read, and my question asks the present position regarding the establishment of the 50-mile exclusive fishery limit for Irish fishermen. Will the Minister accept that in 1976 and 1977 positive statements were made in this House by five members of the present Government that a 50-mile fishery limit could be achieved if the then Government had the capacity and will to do so? Would he further accept that one of those, a learned senior counsel, the present Minister for Foreign Affairs——
The Deputy will please ask a question.
——who dealt with the legal aspect of this question maintained positively then that it could be achieved within the EEC regulations?
The Deputy will now allow the Minister to reply.
I want to get the Minister's reply. I know what mileage was made out of this in 1976 and 1977. Indeed, a Cheann Comhairle, you yourself made a deal of mileage out of it.
I am calling Question No. 36.
I am not agreeing with this. You, Sir, are biased as far as this question is concerned.
The Chair is not biased in respect of any question.
I want a reply to these positive statements which are on the record of this House, particularly the statement of the present Minister for Foreign Affairs who dealt with the legal aspects of this question and who maintained, as I am sure the Minister is aware, that this could be done within EEC regulations if the then Government had the capacity and the will to do so. Is that statement correct?
The Deputy should withdraw the statement that the Chair is biased.
I will withdraw it to satisfy you.
Without reservation.
I am waiting for a question.
I have asked a question. Is the Minister now satisfied that the positive statement made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs early in 1977 that the 50-mile exclusive limit could be achieved for Irish fishermen within EEC regulations if the then Government—to use his words—had the capacity and will to do so? Is that statement now proved incorrect?
I propose to obtain a deal that will be equivalent and just as good as far as Irish fishermen are concerned.
The present Minister for Health and for Social Welfare was very busy on this question, too, at the time.
The Irish Fishermen's Organisation happened to agree with me as well.
Whoever agreed with the Minister, is it achievable under EEC regulations to get a 50-mile exclusive limit, as five members of the present Government before the 1977 general election maintained it was attainable and legally so within EEC regulations, or was this all bluff?
We will achieve——
A 50-mile exclusive limit.
——sufficient scope for the Irish fishermen to profit to a substantial extent by way of fishing plans within a 50-mile zone outside our present base lines. That will be the equivalent of any sort of claim to exclusivity such as the Deputy mentioned.
May we assume from the Minister's reply that the 50-mile limit is a dead question not to be revived again? As we know, it was used completely as an election gimmick in late 1976 and 1977.
The Deputy should be aware that as far back as 22 February 1978 I announced this new approach to the whole matter at a press conference at which the then president of the Irish Fishermen's Organisation was present. He endorsed my realistic approach to the matter which involves Irish fishermen getting a substantial preference within the waters referred to by the Deputy.
Would the most succinct and honest reply to the question not have been four words, "I threw it away"?
The Deputy threw it away in Brussels and I remember the night he did it.
As far as the behaviour of Deputy FitzGerald and Deputy Donegan in this whole matter and the conflict between them are concerned, it was reprehensible and contrary to Ireland's interest in the conduct of the whole proceedings prior to the last general election.
The Minister is aware—
I am well aware of what I am saying.
——of two things. First, what he said is an invention. Secondly, when we left office we had the ground prepared for achieving an exclusive fishery limit which he threw away within ten days.
It is time that people spoke out specifically with regard to Deputy FitzGerald, and I am very glad that certain people in RTE and elsewhere are now getting home to the truth in regard to his form of bluff. I say that categorically and it is well known in Europe that the behaviour of Deputy FitzGerald as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Donegan as Minister for Fisheries during the conduct of our fishery negotiations prior to the last general election was an utter disgrace to this country.
(Interruptions.)