Mr. Michael Desmond:

That is our point. There has to be follow-through. There is a lot to get through there in the Deputy's questions. On salmon fishery, the committee could make recommendations like that to reopen fisheries for us instead of closing them. As for the sprat fisheries, when we are forced out of the quota species, the only thing we have left is the non-quota species. Then when the Government starts bringing forward legislation to stop us fishing the non-quota species, what are we supposed to do? The ISES information on sprat is just a precaution. I will let Mr. Foley talk about it in greater detail but there are plenty of sprat in Irish waters. Just because there was not in Bantry Bay last year does not mean they were not in Donegal Bay, the Dunmore box or anywhere else. Pilchards and anchovies have become the dominant species in the bays of the south-west coast for the past number of years because of warming waters. Two hundred years ago, there was 200 French vessels sailing from Brittany in France to Bantry fishing those stocks and there was no sprat there then either. Things change. It is not always overfishing. However, Mr. Foley will get into the sprat fishing in more detail.