Mr. John Menarry:

Even in asking that question, the Senator is viewing us as individuals. Every vessel is a business. Even if it is only one man in the boat, it is a business. We have talked to the Department previously about social welfare and other opportunities, but we have a business to sustain. If you are talking about giving a man what he would get on the dole, it will not sustain his business or overheads. It is the view people have of fishermen as individual people but we are businesses. As the Senator said, we support seven jobs ashore. Even when we are ashore, we are spending money, buying and maintaining gear and maintaining the vessels. When we are ashore, that is when we spend the most money. When we are fishing, we do not have time to spend the money. A fisherman ashore with nothing to do is a dangerous thing. At the minute, however, we do not have the money to spend and our businesses are suffering. If our businesses are suffering, other people you do not see are suffering further down the line.

To go back to the Senator's point about the crewing on larger vessels, inshore was the breeding ground for those people in those larger vessels. Every one of those guys will tell you that he started off inshore and progressed, but there is not the competition in the inshore sector. Guys are not fighting to get into it and some of them are being pushed onto those larger boats. A weak inshore sector is affecting those larger vessels. It is very important that those vessel owners see that their problem with crew is because they are not being developed and nurtured in the inshore sector.