Mr. Michael Keatinge:

There is one last important point on inshore committees. FLAGs are about socioeconomic development, not HR management. I could have spoken about this issue at length if I had been asked to do so because in 1998 BIM produced the inshore fisheries management report. In the period 1998 to approximately 2010 we were very active in trying to develop the national fisheries management arrangements. That saw the evolution of four species groups, covering species such as lobster, crab, bivalve shellfish such as razor clams, scallops, shrimp and so forth. The four species advisory groups were very much bottom up, driven by fishermen. They also had complementary local committees. We had a very active committee in Roaring Water Bay, Dunmore East and Kilmore Quay. We had an active group in Dundalk Bay covering the cockle fishery, while in west Kerry there was an active crayfish group. This work culminated in the production of the lobster management plan in 2008. Sadly, however, that plan was never implemented and the groups have withered since. It is a source of disappointment for me and the team on the coast that more has not been done in that regard. These fisheries are ones that, by and large, fall outside management by the Commission; therefore, we are not talking about quota species in the normal context but about local national species such as lobster, shrimp, razor fish, cockles and so on.