Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Yes. As everyone will know, my party published the results of its survey yesterday. None of the commentary and findings will shock our guests as they all know the reality on the ground. Sinn Féin conducted a survey of fishermen - these are people who have a business or are workers in the seafood industry - from all around Ireland. Nine out of ten respondents said that the industry has been in serious decline over the past ten years. The survey contained a range of possible responses and one of them was "there has been a significant improvement over the last ten years." Not one single respondent ticked that response. Almost nine out of ten respondents said they would not encourage their children to continue to be in the industry. That response is heartbreaking because these are intergenerational fishermen and fishing families.

The aim of this committee is to find ways to turn around the industry and bring hope. How do the findings of the survey tally with some of the reports by BIM? Is it the case that we are being forced to import fish from overseas? BIM has published a different report today, which I believe is more accurate as it reflects some of the challenges around the piers and harbours around the coast. I have seen reports, however, where if a person did not know anything about the industry he or she would read those reports and think that the industry is in a healthy shape and moving forward. Why are there contrasting reports? Sinn Féin's survey findings show that nearly everybody says the industry is in decline with the decommissioning programmes and the loss of quota. By the way, it is not just offshore. It is inshore, islands fishermen, aquaculture, etc. Every sector tells us the same story. How can that reality not be reflected in the reports produced by the State? To be clear, I am not trying to get our guests into conflict with BIM but let us get an honest picture of where we are at. I always say that if we do not agree on what the problem is then how can we solve it. The starting point is to get everybody around the table and agree on what the problem is, and that is when you start to turn it around. I would like a bit of direction from everybody about the matter.