Mr. John Menarry:

I will also answer the Deputy’s first question on whether I am likely to leave the industry. Nobody wants to leave the fishing industry. It is part of who and what we are. We may be forced to leave. We talked about pollock already. When the pollock was closed, some of our members were actually forced to sell their boats. They were forced out, with no compensation or supports.

On the question of who is behind the privatisation, ministerial policy has basically privatised pelagic quotas. When we had access to 13% of the mackerel quota through the polyvalent allocation and the policy review was reviewed in 2017 by the then Minister, Simon Coveney, those who benefited most were in the south west of the country in his own area. In Europe, we asked MEPs whether they thought that our inability to make political donations affected our ability to access quota. How the policy is privatised to quota for a chosen few would lead one to believe "Yes". Why would a quota that was accessible to so many get taken away and put into the hands of a few? I do not know. In the Deputies’ game, it is all about votes. The inshore sector is the largest sector of the fishing industry by a country mile, yet we get treated the worst. We cannot say whether that was directly the reason for the privatisation but those vessels get their allocations at the start of every year and the inshore sector does not get access to those quotas. If one has the money, one can buy into those fisheries. If one can afford the money for the boat and licence, one can buy into it. To my mind, if one can buy into something, it is being privatised.