Ms Caitlín Uí hAodha:

I represent practically all the scallop boats in the country. Scallops are commercially fished and dredged. We have very few scallop licences and very few scallop days. The fishing is based on the number of days allocated. One can fish only for so many days, and this is based on horse power. I do not know what happened because France has approximately 7 million days and England has approximately 3 million days, while Ireland has approximately 200,000 or 300,000 days. We are way down the scale because of the manner in which the arrangement was rigged or sorted.

There is a very good scallop fishery and it is very sustainable because only a certain number of dredges can be used. The fishery is a very important one in the south east. There is great demand for Irish scallops on the high-end market. The industry is worth perhaps €5 million or €6 million per year to the south east. It is very sustainable.