Manus Boyle (Fine Gael)

I welcome the witnesses. It is great to see them in here talking about inshore fishing, which is a vital part of coastal communities and one that needs to be supported. A lot of the questions I wanted to ask were asked already but I will just go down through them. On the financial support, I totally agree with that. I have boys working for me who are part-time fishermen. There are days and weeks when they cannot go out. They are self-employed. It is totally wrong. It is through no fault of other groups that they are getting financial aid. Inshore fishermen should get financial aid too. That is something on which the committee should push the Minister, and push hard. I know one man who sat at home for three weeks last year waiting to go out to lift his pots. That is wrong. I would like it if the committee took it on as one of the points we would support the inshore fishermen on to try to get some kind of financial aid.

As Mr. Desmond alluded to, it is criminal what fishermen are made to do when they cannot land at the port that is safest for them. I know of a couple instances where boats have had to leave the port at Inver during an amber warning and go around to Killybegs to land fish when it was totally unsafe. However, if they had not done it, they would have been brought before the courts. It makes no sense at all. At the end of the day, the captain of the boat that holds the license should make the decision as to whether it is safe to go to another port or to come in to land. Mr. Desmond is 100% right. If you have under 10 tonnes, you can land at a non-designated port but a fisherman does not know what is in the net. The policy is total nonsense. At the end of the day, the captain of the boat should have the sense to make the best decision for his crew and to land the fish at the nearest port if it is safe to do so.

If the weather is good and he wants to go around to the weighbridge, let him go on ahead, but he should be given that option. He really should because somebody will be lost at sea over the head of this rule here. I have talked about this rule before. What is happening is totally nonsensical. That is another issue the committee could push hard with the Minister. If it is safe, it should be allowed and if not, they should land where it is safe for them to do so.

Regarding the pelagic species, how does Mr. Menarry think it could be better shared? The pot is so small at the moment and, in my eyes, everybody deserves a bit. The problem is coming from Europe. We are getting the crumbs at the table. Everybody else is fishing in our waters and we are getting very little. How can we make it fair for inshore as well as the big boys on the pelagic trawlers? Everybody has to be looked after.

Regarding the herring committee, I attended a meeting in Donegal along with Mr. Menarry. The was a row about herring. Was that last December?