Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My second point is that there is an unnecessarily high bar allowing, no doubt, that POs are hoping they will not have to come down on one side or the other. Probably, they are conflicted internally. For the Minister to say he will move forward if a PO is brought in to make the case, the upshot is that he will wind up with a new PO being founded to get around an unnecessary condition. I suggest a way to move this process forward, which it should be. The Minister now has the submission from the group and the debate here today. He should either have a consultation with the POs and ask for their response to the submission or come back to the joint committee to outline to us the issues he considers might arise if he were to go along with the proposal made. The imposition of a condition that the Minister will not look at this unless a PO asks him to is unnecessary and might be counterproductive. It is creating an unnecessarily high bar to moving forward with what is in issue.

Let us take the simplest case of all: that of the boat ordered by the Marine Survey Office to make a modification that increases the tonnage. It cannot be bought in the polyvalent sector. What is the boat owner meant to do?