Mr. John Walsh:

I will introduce myself to the committee. My name is John Walsh and I am from Bere Island. I am the chairman of Comhar na nOileán. This is my second time attending before the committee. On the last occasion when we were invited to make a submission on behalf of the islands, we used research on the fishing industry which had been carried out by Comhdháil Oileáin na hÉireann, the islands' representative group. It hired a man called Nick Pfeiffer, who is an expert in the area, to carry out research on the fishing industry. He interviewed all the fishermen across the islands. We presented his report to the committee and much of the report found its way into the committee's report, which was great, and we appreciated it.

The recommendation we got from the committee on that previous occasion was for the islands to get together because we were too dispersed. We went away and did that. We are back here today to tell the committee that we have pulled ourselves together. We got fishermen from Cork, Galway, Mayo and Donegal together. We had two or three meetings in Galway. We held a conference there with experts from different places to speak to the fishermen. We are now asking the committee where we should go now. We need its assistance. The Chairman spoke about an implementation group. We would be looking for this as well. This could be a working group which we could part of and through which we could work with other people. We consider a partnership approach is needed. We are not going to do it on our own; the committee will not do it on its own. If we work together, we will achieve something.

The islands are under pressure population-wise. The national inshore fisheries forum is only being bedded in at the moment. We are in more of a hurry than that. We need to work with it, but we need an independent islands group because the islands are different. From my experience of work with islands, whether fishing, tourism or farming, it always needs something a bit different. The recommendation from the Common Fisheries Policy shows that Europe sees this now as well. If we all work together, we can definitely achieve something.

Mr. Early referred to the recommendations, and especially No. 10 on heritage licensing. I spoke to many fishermen in west Cork over the past few days. They see boats coming in with 400 or 500 pots and they have just their punts and 50 or 60 pots. They always managed to make a living, but the islands life was always based on seasonality where the people did a bit of farming, a bit of fishing and a bit of tourism. This kept the islands going. The main industries of fishing and farming are going. The population is being eroded as well. It is vital, therefore, that we get all the parts to start working together again to ensure the sustainability of the islands. I am also a member of the fisheries local area development scheme, FLAG. To my mind, there are definitely opportunities in this for the islands. However, more than funding is required. It needs partnership working. If we get a group together in a room and we all have the common approach that we need to do something and work together, everything else will fall into place.