Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are restrictions within the Common Fisheries Policy on the amount of fish that can be caught by any one boat. They are based on a boat’s quota, not its size. There are also rules and regulations about the types of net and the fishing equivalents that can be used to do that fishing. Those rules and regulations can be altered to take steps that respect the sustainability and maintenance of stocks into the future.

In some countries, those boats have grown very large – I touched on this issue earlier – but the Common Fisheries Policy restricts their quotas and they cannot catch any more than that. As with boats of all sizes, ensuring that the rules and regulations are fully applied to them is key.