Mr. Michael Foley:

There is legislation stating that a vessel must go to a designated port where there is a weighbridge to land fish. Those fishing on the south coast, such as off Cork Harbour or whatever, have to go out to sea and steam to Baltimore or Dunmore East to land a catch. That is not safe for small inshore boats. If a boat has fish on board, this could involve a ten-hour steam to one or other of those ports. Fishermen are going out into the open sea and risking their boat, their own lives and the lives of their crew. Something needs to be done.

Fishermen can land a ten tonne catch, but that limit needs to be increased to, perhaps, 25 tonnes. A lorry that comes with fish will take 25 tonnes. If a fisherman sends a lorry away with ten tonnes of fish, he or she will have nothing for their fish because their transport has gone and is taken out of the ten tonne catch that has been landed. If the rule was that an inshore fleet could land 25 tonnes in any port around the coast, that would be a massive help for inshore boats.