Mr. Cathal Groonell:

Yes. We will answer them between us as they are different. I will take the queries raised by Senator Mac Lochlainn about the position of the fishing organisations. Part of the question goes directly to part of our problem - that in our opinion the Department focuses on the boats and the fishermen entirely in the allocation of quotas and it does not look to see what the impacts are on employment and processing. The quota is a national resource and this is well spelled out in the Department's policy. The State gets value from that quota when it is actually processed in Ireland. If the fish is landed abroad, for example, it is lost to us and there is very little gain for the State from it. If the fish is landed in Ireland and processed here then there is a value to the State. In fact, the more processing and the more value added here then the more value is gained by the State from the resource. The fishing organisations dominate the quota management committees. Even within our own processors' organisation many of the members are boat owners also. We would be a bit unique in the 12 factories. Not many of the 12 registered pelagic factories would not be owned by boat owners. There is a very dominant position by fishermen and boats in the decision making and the Department seems to only confer with the fishermen in making the decisions. For example, we-----