Mr. Tom Kennedy:

At present, Ireland has a mackerel quota of 85,000 tonnes. We have 27 boats in the south and 23 boats based in Killybegs fishing for mackerel. At present, 87% of the quota is distributed to the 23 boats in Killybegs in the north west and we in the south west get the remaining 13% of the quota.

I am one of the 27 fishermen with boats based in the south west. I have been fishing mackerel every year since 1984. I am not entitled to the same portion of the quota as the other boats based in Killybegs.

We are seeking to rectify the imbalance of the present quota with only 13% allocated to fishermen in the south west. We are willing to give up our whitefish entitlement to avail of the 14% increase of 10,000 tonnes. I think the way in which the quota has been distributed in the past number of years is unfair. We in the south west have been fishing as long as everybody else but have been disadvantaged by the imbalance in the distribution of the quota. There are factories in Rossaveal, Dingle, Castletown and Baltimore that process mackerel. Each of these factories employ 60 to 70 people every winter, but the mackerel fishing ended on 1 March 2017 and all the people in the factory had to be let go from their jobs. If we had extra quota, they would have got another three to four weeks' work. The share-out is very unfair.

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee.