10. Legislative Consent Motion on the Fisheries Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:27 pm on 6 October 2020.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 6:27, 6 October 2020

I have considerable concerns about this arrangement: one of them is that I don't trust the Tories, and that's my red line for myself. I will support it, but I'm going to support it with huge reservations, which I want to outline. I don't think that biennial reporting is equitable to a sunset clause, and that concerns me. But what really concerns me here is that 90 per cent of the Welsh fishing fleet is made up of small vessels, and they predominantly catch shellfish, and most of that is exported to the EU, and there isn't even a trading agreement in place. Coming back to where I started, I don't trust the Tories: apparently we had the best trading deal ever, and now it transpires we haven't even got a trading deal of any description whatsoever. If we add into that the fact that COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the industry, and the price of fish has dropped dramatically, by up to 85 per cent in some cases—and, of course, the unavoidable closure of hospitality businesses and restaurants has made the demand for shellfish much reduced.

So, whilst I'm going to support it, I do share all the concerns that people have already outlined. I would like to hear an explanation, really, of why you are so confident that, within the framework—. And I do acknowledge, of course, the positives that others have outlined—I don't want to take time up repeating those—but I would like the answer to how you feel confident that you can, moving forward, under the framework agreement, get a deal that will safeguard, as I've said from the very start, the interests of the fishing industry, albeit small, that exists in Wales.