Debate contribution: Fisheries Act 2020 (Scheme for Financial Assistance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024
Debate contribution by Mr Jim Allister KC on .
- MLA
- Mr Jim Allister KC
- Party at the time
- Traditional Unionist Voice
- Date
- 24 June 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Fisheries Act 2020 (Scheme for Financial Assistance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4497487
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Minister told us that this is a scheme under the Fisheries Act, which it is, whereby all the devolved regions and England and Wales can make their own provision. What he did not tell the House and what the Committee does not even seem to have examined is the overriding fundamental constitutional issue that, under the protocol, the scheme is capped. The EU, our colonial masters for whom the Minister is but a slave in these circumstances, dictates how much can be granted in aid to our fishermen. Article 10 of the protocol subjects us to state aid rules. They apply only to Northern Ireland, and therefore England, Wales and Scotland do not have their hands tied behind their back in this regard. State aid rules have specified the maximum that the Minister can grant under the scheme to the fishing industry. It is mentioned in paragraph 9 of the explanatory document. There, in black and white, is the elephant that no one wanted to mention: all that the Minister is allowed to provide under the scheme is £16·9 million over five years. For this year, the first of five, he has provided 20% of that. It also says that the maximum that he can provide in any year is £4·01 million. The fundamental issue is that this is a Minister who can only do Brussels' bidding and is not allowed to put our fishing industry into a position from which they can better compete with the EU, because the EU dictates how much grant aid he can give. It does so on the basis that we should not be allowed to compete with it from an advantageous position. Therefore, the Minister comes to the House with a proposal that, effectively, has been written in Brussels, because it tells us how much we can give to our fishing industry in Northern Ireland. That is but an illustration of how appalling the continuing control and jurisdiction of a foreign Parliament and Commission is over an industry in Northern Ireland that, having already been crucified by the common fisheries policy for 40 years by the EU, is now but a small shadow of itself and still has to continue being dominated and controlled by EU limits on the aid that can be given to the sector. It is an appalling vista and situation. It is little wonder that our fishing industry will not be allowed to flourish and grow back to what it was, since the EU still controls the purse strings. It is not that the EU gives the money, but it controls how much the British Exchequer can give and how much its colonial slave — the Minister — can give to the industry. That is a fundamental affront, against which I am surprised — maybe I am not — to be the only Member of the House to protest.
481 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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