Mr. John Menarry:

I will add to what Mr. Foley said. There is an SFPA office in Greencastle.

Ten boats can land 10 tonnes but one boat cannot land 11 tonnes. Ten boats can land 100 tonnes but one boat cannot land 11 tonnes and that is down to legislation. The Minister can fix that in the morning if he wants. Legislation would fix it, no problem. It would be done and dusted.

On the tuna, it is unfortunate that Senator O'Reilly has just stepped out but it is probably the one quota for which we need to go to Europe to get an allocation. ICCAT issues Europe with a quota allocation and it is up to our Minister to ask for an allocation for us. We have asked on numerous occasions and been told that nobody will give it to us but if we do not ask, we do not get. We hear the same old story that for us to get more, other people will have to take less but it is a case that in order for us to get any, those who have it all are going to have to take a small haircut. I was out fishing in Donegal Bay yesterday. I was fishing for crab and there were five angling boats fishing for tuna around me. There was tuna everywhere. One or two tuna per week would save me having to go to brown crab. It would take the pressure of the brown crab and give us diversification. The stocks are there. We cannot fish tuna in our waters because our Government at the time was under pressure from angling vessels to protect tuna in Irish waters. That is why the anglers are limited in the number of angling boats that can actually fish for them in Irish waters. They are a protected species.

On the north-west herring, it is down not to political will but will on the part of the Department to engage. Everybody said one of the main issues with the north-west herring committee was a lack of engagement from the Department. I have given the Department options. We had a meeting in March 2024 and were asked to get back to the Department within a week. We got back within the week with a letter containing our recommendations but we heard nothing until the Department came out with recommendations for the fishery in October. There was no engagement whatsoever.