Ms Caitlín Uí hAodha:

Mr. O'Brien is lucky he was offered money for this licence. My salmon licence was revoked in 1985 so they did not have to pay me anything.

Whether one is fishing at sea or on the islands, salmon fisheries show how badly we have managed our fisheries. We lobbied strongly in the 1980s to control salmon fisheries with a certain number of nets but the lobbying to which Deputy Harrington referred is the reason our industry is as it is. We lobby people all the time and those who shout the loudest get the most. That is one of the issues we must consider. I return to the question of how our herring fisheries are ring-fenced, because boats from a certain country have more fishery access to our area than anybody else. These practices will not create sustainable fisheries or sustainable communities.

I imagine it is not possible to fish herring and mackerel from the islands in County Donegal because the EU law that affects us also trickles down to affect the people who live on those islands. They no longer have the privilege of fishing on their doorstep. These laws have to change and we have to examine what we are doing to protect coastal people and, by doing so, the rest of us. We are all in the same boat, whether it is a punt or a large vessel. Boxes create huge problems and they take from coastal areas which enjoyed traditional fishing rights. The people on these islands should be able to jig or fish for mackerel or herring. The pot of fish we owned should have been dished out more fairly but we need to consider the matter carefully so that we do not continue to operate in the same way. If we continue to ring-fence and box fisheries, the boxes will get smaller because the bigger guys will eventually devour the smaller ones.

The island people are also part of us, but they are being squeezed out because of EU law and bad Irish policy which closed salmon fishing to them. I lost my licence to fish salmon even though we lobbied for a sensible approach. That is the one thing missing from fishing policy in this country. In aquaculture, I know someone who is trying to get classification for Youghal Bay. It has taken him two years to even carry out a study. There is a fishery in the bay that we are not allowed to use. Why does the fishing community have to address this committee every year? Where is the barrier between sense and what is going on? As I noted in my opening statement, the industry is worth €500 million but we have no security. None of us can go to a bank with a plan for the next five years because we do not know what the EU or the Department will bring down the line. There is no way forward unless we come out of the boxes. We need people who will stand up for the industry rather than simply dealing with those who shout the loudest.