Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank members for their contributions. While there might not be many members, they are all well informed. They are people who understand.

I am going to do something a little unusual from the committee's point of view. Before I go back to the witnesses the members of the committee have identified two issues in particular that Deputies should immediately agree to, and we need not wait to do it if members agree. On the review of the rules governing the existing scheme, we should write to the Minister immediately, given the fact that there is a 20% uptake of the scheme. Notwithstanding the fact that there is a request for further compensation, we should first exhaust the one that is there.

The second matter is contained in our report. It is probably the only action in the shorter term contained in the report produced by the sub-committee. It was with regard to how fishermen are treated for the purpose of social welfare entitlements as self-employed people. There is no understanding of the specific challenges in the fishing community's work in that regard. There is no point in waiting until the end of the tax year to seek a tax rebate when one must live today as a self-employed person. The social welfare Department must examine this with a specific emphasis on it. I have not read the CEDRA report but I am sure if it was done in the spirit in which it was intended, rural, coastal and island communities form part of it. We would hope that the recommendations we produced in our report would feed into CEDRA and how that report will give further regard to coastal communities.

Third, and this has nothing to do with today's meeting, there is a Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth seminar being scheduled for June. The initial one is in Dublin Castle. We already hope the report we produced earlier would feed into that and perhaps some of us could go, as members of the sub-committee, and speak on it and contribute to that seminar. We must maintain the pressure and keep the focus on this sector, if we are serious about rural development and maintaining a socioeconomic model that will work for rural communities.

Is it agreed that we write to the Minister with a view to revisiting the rules governing this scheme and also write to both him and the Minister for Social Protection asking them to urgently review how fishermen and fisherwomen are treated in the social welfare code? Does Deputy Ferris have a suggestion?