Mr. Enda Conneely:

I agree with Mr. Lynch and Mr. Byrne that we are in trouble. We need to move forward. Looking at the speech about the oceans pact, the Commission is saying extreme weather and unfair competition is putting many fishers out of business. One of the things it wants is that no young European who grows up beside the sea should be forced to leave their home. That is the message from the top so we need to give it some practical application. It was also said that every fishing job at sea creates 30 upstream and downstream jobs. The EU imports 70% of its fish. Another issue mentioned was food security, which is extremely important, especially with short supply chain stuff along the coast.

Going back to the attitude of the Government and agencies, they seem to have been caught up in a kind of bureaucratic nightmare. They seem to look for how things cannot be done as opposed to how they can be done. We will have to find a positive way of interpreting these things so we can rebuild an industry that we let go but should not have let go. That is the only thing we can do. We have a dedicated Minister of State and this committee will be useful. Let us just focus on the future, as Mr. Byrne said.