Mr. Cormac Burke:

I believe that the cause of salvaging our fishing industry is worth fighting for, but the agencies that are supposed to be managing it are certainly not worth fighting for. Ireland's fishing industry has been very good to the agencies and the quangos that have mismanaged it. Deputy Mac Lochlainn mentioned figures a while ago and I will repeat them. There are 17,000 people trying to survive and make a living from this industry and fewer than 1,000 people sponging from it, putting in the hours and waiting to collect their pensions. Included in this group of people are those who are masquerading as so-called industry supporters, who must be identified, exposed and cleared out once and for all, if this industry is to see any hope of a revival. That last line might sound a bit cryptic but I am going to mention this anyway. Twenty-four hours before the previous committee meeting here, I was diagnosed with cancer. That brings sharply into focus for me the cancer that we have in our own industry, which we must root out or else the patient is going to die.