Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to make a personal observation in response to some of the comments. It is all down to distribution of the quotas. When a very small number of vessels is the beneficiary of a national quota then one has a serious problem. The committee heard there were 60,000 dairy producers 15 to 20 years ago and now there are 17,000. One could ask whether that is beneficial to the country and what the social consequences are for affected areas. The same is true of fishing. The mackerel quota has been ring-fenced. Approximately 23 boats have the entire national mackerel quota. The herring quota is now being ring-fenced. At the same time, 2,000 vessels are struggling to survive. The policy is wrong. Far more people would benefit if the quotas were fairly distributed. The observation was made that last year Irish boats landed 250,000 tonnes of fish compared to 25,000 tonnes of fish in 1972. The reality is that many more people were involved in landing 25,000 tonnes of fish than currently land 250,000 tonnes. How many vessels did Mr. Keatinge say there are in Holland?