Ms Norah Parke:

With respect to Mr. Patrick Murphy, I would also like to dispel some misinformation. For a start, Mr. Murphy based his proposal at the time, in all good faith, on there being an increase in the mackerel quota which was supposed to happen. However, there has not been an increase in the quota because the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, which advises the EU on what the quotas should be and whose advice is almost always taken to the letter, made a mistake. The scientists make a mistake in their calculation - a basic mistake that should not have happened. We need this committee to send a strong message about that to the Government which, in turn, needs to bring that message to the EU level, but that is a separate matter. Not alone was there not an increase in the quota but there was to be a decrease in it in the coming years to make up for the misinformation that was given at that time. It was not the case that the members of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation would not lose any fish quota but there was to be a substantial decrease in the quota that would be available.

There is most definitely a difference between the two types of vessels. A naval architect would be better employed here to give that type of information but there is definitely a substantial difference. It is not the case that everybody was working on the same level playing pitch before quotas were established in the 1970s. A considerably different approach was taken by the fishermen in the South who concentrated on white fish. They had great stocks of white fish in those days. They had no interest in becoming involved in the pelagic scene. The fishermen in the north west, who did not have the same opportunities to fish white fish stocks, concentrated on the pelagic fish stocks. They built up their fleet and market and adhered to and, in many cases, increased their quotas. They investigated new species and widened the whole repertoire, which was the basis for creating the strong processing sector in Killybegs.

Deputy Healy-Rae made the point that the number of employees in the processing plants could possibly be doubled but that does not follow. When the quantities of fish going through a processing plant are increased, almost invariably the mechanisation process is increased and there is a reduction in the number of jobs. In this context, one cannot say that one plus one equals two. It does not always work out as simplistically as that.