Mr. Cathal Groonell:

Deputy Martin Kenny asked whether the Department can solve our problem, namely, that we have lost five boats in Rossaveel and pretty much most of our supply. We are asking the Department to find a way. We have put this proposal forward. It is the only one we can think of that would mean processors would survive. We have thought long and hard about this. We were involved in many campaigns down through the years to get more fish for the polyvalent sector, namely the small boats and those located in Rossaveel, Dingle and Baltimore. We were reasonably successful. When Mr. Tony Killeen was Minister of State, he changed the allocation. That was the last time. He got a fairly substantial increase for the polyvalent sector at that time. At the end of the day, what did it do for us? It made those boats more valuable and now they are suddenly the target of the bigger operators. The latter are saying those boats have a bigger quota now and are worth buying. One can see the prices paid for them. We have looked at every side of this. We really cannot see any proposal other than the one we have here. However, if the Department comes up with a better way that is different, we will consider it. We are not precious about it as long as it works.