Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It was the only way the Department could deal with it which is fair enough.

As the Minister stated, 18 vessels have requested this review of the subsegmentation. As I understand it, there are 31 or 33 vessels in the polyvalent pelagic sector, which means a majority of vessels in the sector affected is requesting this. That surely should carry some weight within the decision-making process. I understand the Department's concerns that if a vessel is allowed to increase its stability at sea and its ability to go to sea in certain weather conditions, the next step would be that it would look for additional quota. On that basis, one would never do anything and the Department would never allow anything to happen. Fishermen will look for additional quota. I do not see it as a valid reason not to do something. If somebody puts a bulbous bow on their vessel, for example, that will not all of a sudden create the capacity to catch an extra 200 tonnes of mackerel a year.

I know of situations where boats were unable to go to sea because of weather conditions and were not able to catch their mackerel quota until very late in the season. In order to make their quota, they had to steam for 17 or 18 hours from their home port. Surely that is not a good situation for those boats. It could lead to them going to sea in weather for which the vessels are not fit. We have seen tragic cases like that in the past, unfortunately, when fishermen have gone to sea in bad weather because of the need to catch quota. We should be able to find a mechanism that allows fishermen to improve the standard and accommodation of their vessels without increasing their quota demand.