José Manuel Fernandes was speaking to journalists regarding the PS's request for an urgent hearing in parliament with a view to clarifying statements he made about the exchange of sardine quotas for seabream in the budget discussion in the specialty.

Speaking in general terms, the person responsible for Agriculture and Fisheries said that the Government always chooses to exchange quotas for fish species that are expected not to be fully used for others that will be.

“If we have a quota that we are not going to use and if we can exchange it with Spain to increase the fishermen's income, we obviously do that, and if we can exchange it for an even more valuable product that they don't use, that is all for the benefit of our fishermen”, he highlighted.

The minister appeared surprised by the PS's request for an urgent hearing, claiming that “the previous Government of the Socialist Party always made these ‘swaps’, these exchanges” of capture quotas.

“It seems to me that it is a criticism of the Socialist Party itself in relation to the Socialist Party Government, namely the former Secretary of State for Fisheries, who carried out the procedure, which is right and that we also did it”, he added.