Mr. Jerry Early:

I am a member of the north Regional Inshore Fisheries Forum, RIFF. The north FLAG and north RIFF run concurrently and there are many crossovers. In my experience, the RIFF and the National Inshore Fisheries Forum, NIFF, are up and running. I compliment the Minister, Deputy Coveney. He probably took that from the recommendations. As a representative of the county at national level, I have to represent the county. I have great difficulty getting my points across. The difficulties on an island are very difficult to those on the mainland. I cannot wear the hat I really want to wear, but I still have to represent the county to the best of my capabilities in terms of what is right for the county.

It does not go far enough in terms of the islands getting recognition. The report was born of lobbying which was initially done by the Donegal islands committee of which I was a part. Deputy Pringle helped us in the initial stages. We feel we have set the template and written the bible, but now we are the horses at the back of the queue. We have to be very careful that we do not get bogged down with the recommendations and what we want. Everybody wants something.

I would be happy if we left today, as the Chairman said, with a plan for the future as to how we can prioritise the recommendations and focus on the CFP declaration and the amendment to it to the effect that offshore islands have to be specially recognised. We have held up our end of the bargain. At a previous committee meeting we were asked to go away and organise ourselves. After a lot of hard work - which was done on a voluntary basis, as nobody was paid - that is what we did. We are now back to move things on another step.