Mr. Robert McCabe:

The interactions are very frequent. We meet once a month, generally. We do not meet in August, but otherwise we meet once a month. The subgroups also develop relationships. The latter involve smaller numbers of people sitting together trying to get to grips with the issues that both sectors face. A lot of interaction goes on.

The issues that arise can be very broad, and I could probably spend the rest of the afternoon talking about them. There are always concerns about the future of fishing in the broadest sense of the term. Earlier, we discussed briefly whether one could fish in a wind park. Of course, there is absolutely no barrier to that at present. However, fishermen would have concerns about the extent to which you can do it.

Depending on the direction of wind and tide – and everything at sea depends on that – the number of vessels that could fish within a wind park could be different. The test will always be for the skipper in a vessel, where a prudent mariner would go. They have concerns about impacts on their industry. The have concerns about direct impacts of any development at sea, whether it is ORE or marine protected areas. Anything that reduces their fishing space has an impact and can move vessels from one area to another, because it is a mobile business. They have concerns about the movement of fishing vessels from one area to another. They have concerns about activity that is outside the remit of our working group. We look at ORE issues, and we now have very good relationships in that space.

There is, of course, other activity on the water that is outside that space. For example, there are telecommunications cables. People are concerned about including those in the group's work. Overall, there is a concern about the unknown. As Wind Energy Ireland set out, the final design of offshore floating wind off the west coast is not known. There are concerns around what the impact and footprint of that will be and what the implications could be if there an issue arose.

On a more positive note, having worked at lea for most of my life, when things do arrive and when are developed, seafarers work together. They work with whomever is there. We should bear that in mind. Relationships on the water are always around trying to help each other out.