Ireland holds 12% of the fishing waters of the European Union.

Omissions

• The 'less than 4% of the fish' portion of the claim could not be verified: the sources found cite Ireland being allocated 'less than 6% of fishing quotas', a different metric (quota share) than actual catches.
• No primary official source (Eurostat, European Commission, or Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine) stating the 12% figure was located within the search limit; the two supporting sources are trade/fishing press (secondary).
• The exact phrase 'We have 12% of the waters, we catch less than 4% of the fish' appears widely in Irish political discourse (including on social media), which corroborates it as a repeated claim but does not constitute independent evidence.

Sources

• SecondaryThe Skipper (Irish fishing industry publication)Ireland holds about 12% of EU waters but is allocated less than 6% of fishing quotas, which fishing leaders say is totally inequitable.
• SecondaryThe Fishing DailyDespite controlling about 12 percent of EU waters, Ireland receives less than 6 percent of the quotas.