Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's replies have covered much of what I had wanted to raise. It is commendable that the Minister has a management plan for all sectors in the fishing industry. I am concerned about the Commission's proposal for deep cuts. The battle will be about the scientific evidence prepared by the Minister's Department, in consultation with the sector. If the scientific evidence stands up, the Minister's hand will be strong when he goes into negotiation.

Like many people, both inside and outside the fishing sector, the discards issue is a huge problem. The Minister mentioned that he hopes to end discards through improvements in the type of gear used and so forth. What do we in the meantime? It is difficult to justify dumping the best of fish at sea. Could the Government not find some imaginative way of dealing with this problem and use it to argue in Brussels? Could the discards be sold off at a reduced rate and the revenue used for conservation purposes? There must be some imaginative way around the problem.

The Minister mentioned that some of the data on depletion of stocks that are available to the Commission are based on miscalculations. Does the Minister have evidence of that? Could he elaborate on it?

Like everyone else, I hope the negotiations will be successful. The Minister has all our support in that regard. Fishing is a sizeable industry. It can create jobs it if is used properly. We are all 100% behind the Minister in that.