Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My relationship with BIM - this tells my age - goes back to the days of Brendan O'Kelly. I always had a tremendous working relationship with it. Its people have always been on the ground and available to take many smaller fishermen by the hand.

The most frightening aspect of today's presentation is the red area shown on the map of Ireland and Britain. If there is to be a hard Brexit, we will need to fight this tooth and nail on behalf of the industry. If we have to suffer pain, that pain will have to be shared by the other maritime states in the European Union and not just us.I have attended Council meetings when I had to fly to London in advance to secure the support of the ad hocarrangement that was there for a long time, The Hague Preferences. The British always supported us. It may have been in their interest but it was more in our interest. I do not know what will happen. I am glad that the Department has BIM involved in the interagency and departmental group. Have any meetings take place yet? I hope BIM will be on a level playing pitch with the other agencies involved, including the Department and the Marine Institute. Ms Buckley has flagged that she is well prepared for a hard Brexit.

On FLAGs and Leader, as Mr. Keatinge has said 80% of those involved in the industry are those in small boats. They are bringing their income into the most rural parts and they are all landing at home. That is what is important about them. Am I right that there is a grant scheme in place for buying second-hand vessels? A fisherman, who either has to have the tonnage or buy the tonnage, may want a new small boat. I know that it is not possible to require that they be built in Ireland, but anyone building small boats will be going to Killybegs, Mevagh or elsewhere. I ask the witnesses to think about that if it is not in place.

Is BIM working closely with Leader when it comes to funding projects for the sector?

Mr. Keatinge talked about discards. That was the sexy thing for years in the run-up to the Common Fisheries Policy. Everybody who knew nothing about fish knew everything about discards and how it was going to work. It was almost like suggesting sending an e-mail to the fish that the fishermen did not want to catch saying, "Stay out of our way today." It just does not work like that. I am sorry I cannot be here for the Sea Fisheries Protection Agency's presentation. I hope that good sense prevails in the case of vessels that might have a surplus. How is the system with discards working?