Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses here today and thank them for raising this interesting item for discussion. I want to ask about the public consultation period which is happening now. This is being looked at. Has Iasc Mara Teoranta made a submission to that consultation and fitted into the actual process itself? Is this a part of the witnesses submission and is this what they propose by public consultation? It seems like a radical change in policy to put it bluntly. If I get what the company is trying to do, in a nutshell it is trying to move the quota from the boats to the processors. If this is being proposed it would be a drastic change, naturally, to the policy itself. I wonder if there is support in the community for that. The witnesses have said that 90% of the market is tied up but others would say that 10% is not tied up and that it is based on price. In my part of the world if one was to equate that to the milk quota - from back in the day - it was attached to the land and the farm. It was not attached to the co-operatives. Are we now proposing that the mackerel quota would be attached to the processors? What would the feeling be in the community itself in that regard? On the other side, if we were to go along with this proposal, would there be a backlash from communities over who had ownership of these quotas? They are a great commodity and it is a bit like everything else in that people have banked on these quotas. It is one of the key things on which the Chairman might get clarity for me. If we are going to have situation where the quota regime is going to move drastically from the fishermen onto the manufacturer it would be helpful, in order to progress, to see what the community's views are on what would be a major, grave step.