Mr. John O'Brien:

I come from a small Gaeltacht island off the Donegal coast called Oileán Inis Bó Finne. I did my first sea journey when I was three days old. I was taken to the mainland for a christening and I have nearly been at sea ever since. I started night salmon fishing in 1970 or 1971 at the age of 11 or 12 with my father. At that time, there was only night fishing. The boats would leave the harbour at about 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. and go to the fishing grounds until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. They would shoot their nets just before dark and haul them in again at sunrise before returning home with their catch.

That was going on very well between trying to raise the children, as well as a bit of farming and fishing. However, in 1976 or 1977 a new type of net came on the market that could catch fish during the day. That is when the whole thing started to go wrong. It was welcomed by the mothers and grandmothers who had sons and husbands at sea, and who had waited for them to come home during the night, in that they could earn their living during the day. However, somebody in some Department, for reasons best known to themselves, decided that this could not be allowed. The new net could be used for fishing cod, haddock and pollack but it was illegal for salmon.

It was easy to catch fish during the day but since our licences did not cover those nets, everybody went fishing, including gardaí, school teachers, shop keepers and publicans. If the publican could not go, he would buy a boat and send a few customers out and would get all the money back. That went on for 20 years probably until 1997 when we had a war with the navy. When an Arranmore boat was being arrested and taken ashore, the boats from Inishbofin and Tory Island would sneak out while they were taken to the court, so we would land our catch. Nobody wanted to do anything about it because it was a hot potato.

In 1997, the rainbow coalition Government was in power. The then Minister of State, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, was in charge of fisheries and he had the courage to legalise monofilament nets. It was a step in the right direction. We paid a high price for it, in a way, but at least we were legal. The fishing limit was reduced from the 12-mile limit to the six-mile limit. In addition, it was restricted to four days instead of five and eight weeks instead of 12, but at least things were legal. We were going on the right track.

The subsequent Government introduced tags and quotas. After monofilament nets were legalised there was a widespread decline in fishing because only licensed fishermen could operate. There was therefore a big decrease in the amount of boats going to sea. Up to that date the sector was managed depending on the amount of fish landed. When scientists saw this big decrease in landings, however, they stated there cannot be any fish left so they started to introduce quotas and tags.

Sea angling had a strong lobby group which approached various Ministers because they wanted the fishery closed down altogether. They started a campaign to stop driftnet fishing. Meanwhile, some commercial fishermen on the west coast joined with the anglers. They were approached by the Nascro group whose chairman came all the way from Iceland. We hear a lot about Iceland nowadays. The man from Iceland offered people a lot of money to give up their licences.

The driftnet representative - I think he was in the salmon commission - wrote to us asking how much money it would take to buy us out. Would it be €60,000, €100,000, €250,000 or more? I think I sent my reply saying "More", even though I had no intention of giving up my licence. Things moved rapidly from 1997 with the introduction of tags and a decrease in landings due to many people leaving the industry. There was a wide campaign to get us out of fishing.

When it came to the crunch, however, there was no money from Iceland, even though about 50% of people had volunteered to leave the industry. I was appointed to the board of the national fisheries commission in October 2005, but a lot of decisions had been taken before then.

That was the Fianna Fáil Government. The Fine Gael Government had different ideas. It was not going to close the fisheries. Rather, it intended to give a setaside and pay compensation to anyone who wanted out. It would pay any fisherman who wanted to stay on for three years to see how things worked out. Of course, Fine Gael left government and that did not happen. It is in government again.

In my time on the commission, we sat around a table and, from my first day, I was approached by fisheries representatives, including private fisheries and anglers, and asked how much money it would take to buy our organisation out. I told them my licence was not for sale. The way I got my licence was strange. I did not get my father's licence, which went to someone else. When I was 17, a man from Gola Island was getting on in years. I will name him because the Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht, Deputy Dinny McGinley, might be related to him. He keeps telling us about his relations on Gola Island. Tadhg McGinley sold his boat and the nets. I bought the nets for £900 and the licence came with them. The licence could be transferred to one's name. I was not about to sell that licence. During my time on the commission there was a great deal of toing and froing and pressure from the angling group about closing it down. The Fianna Fáil Government gave in to the pressure and a compensation scheme was put in place. It was not voluntary. It was compulsory to align with the scientific committee and a single-stock fishery. As an islandman and an island representative, I could not go along with that.

They sent me the form for the salmon hatchery scheme. I have the form in its envelope with me. One was to send the form back and it would be estimated how much fish one had caught in the last five years. One received €25 per fish and an amount for them to put one's net on the bonfire. I did not send the form away. My problem was that for people who could move to a single-stock fishery there was an alternative. For us, there was no alternative. For somebody to offer me money going back over five years to relieve me of my hardship would not work. The best it could do was take me forward five years. That five years would have run out last year or the year before. Here we are today thinking that an injustice was done. I am waiting for someone to put it right. I will not give up on it. I hope it will be done this year and, if not, next year but at the latest in 2016. That is why I mentioned Tadhg McGinley's boat, the licence from which I got. In 2016, whoever is in government might think of that boat and the men who died for our country and give back our licences and our fair play. That is all I have to say.