Ms Norah Parke:

It is not as simplistic as Mr. Sheehy would make out. For starters, if the Killybegs boats lose some of their quota, they will not be able to avail of any of the whitefish quota. A dedicated pelagic RSW vessel cannot do any other sort of fishing; it is all it can do unless the 70 m boat that is being built at enormous cost to catch these fish is to be scrapped. There is a danger that, if the fishermen are not catching the quota off their own coast, they will go somewhere else. Those boats will be sold out of the fleet. In the long run, it will have a significantly negative effect on the Irish fishing economy.