mr president it gave me no pleasure today to vote against a report that contains many potentially positive aspects for the future of our fisheries
yet the fact remains that for my fishing industry the common fisheries policy continues to wreak havoc
the hague preference regime annually discriminates against northern ireland's fishermen by deducting quotas from their allocations
eleven years of temporary closures in the irish sea have reduced our whitefish fleet from over forty trawlers to six and yet we still talk about over-capacity
then there is the question of applying rules developed for fisheries in the north sea to the irish sea a consistent or common approach that is out of touch with reality on the ground
consider only the net gauges which were agreed for admirable reasons but which europe imposed upon the fishing industry with a wholesale failure to communicate the implications of the change to the new method
that is why while i am encouraged by some aspects of the report i voted against it
