Mr. Justin Moran:

In terms of the ban, what we see in other European markets is that in some countries fishing activity is banned from the footprint of an operational offshore wind farm. That is not the case in Britain where fishing can take place. It is a very site-specific circumstance depending on the various types of fishing, which can be worked out, and the actual layout of the turbines. Certainly, a wind farm can be designed in such a way, where the site allows it, to facilitate fishing to continue. That is what we want to happen. Instead of having a blanket rule, let us sit down with the fishing community to try to work it our and ensure fishers can continue fishing.

On the issue of guard vessels, I thank Deputy Mac Lochlainn for raising this in a legislation going through the Department of Transport last year. The challenge is that if there is a vessel that could function as guard duty and it is on the fishing register, it needs to be taken off the fishing register and apply to go back on the commercial register to carry out the guard duty. Once that is done, the commercial licence has to be handed back and an application made to go back on the fishing register. Someone might say it is technically possible for an Irish fishing vessel to do guard duty, and technically it is, but as the documentation put together by the seafood/ORE working group under Captain McCabe's chairmanship shows, it is completely impractical. British fishermen and those based out of the North of Ireland are entitled to continue operating guard duty and continue fishing. That is something we would like to see done here in Ireland.