Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I want to get to the heart of a few issues. On one, I will pose a question to all of the witnesses. How have the fishing restrictions affected the island communities? Other witnesses have told us that fishing opportunities exist but are not being taken up. If so, the report of the previous committee would not have suggested the need for an island heritage Bill and we would not be here today. I would like to flesh this matter out. What has been the impact of the quota system on people who live on the islands as opposed to those who represent the producer organisations? Has that been negative or positive? Are opportunities being missed? As has been suggested, is this about the need for investment, better marketing and better landing facilities? Alternatively, is it simply that the opportunity to fish does not exist because, for example, the fish in respect of which there is a quota do not swim around the islands?

IIMRO has pushed this matter considerably and I applaud its work in that regard. We would not be debating this Bill if not for the pressure from IIMRO. What is its response to the committee's discussion that it heard earlier? When everything is weighed up, the producer organisations claim that this is not about quota, as quota is available, but about people on the islands needing better infrastructure and not taking advantage of what is available to them, and that this will only add another layer of bureaucracy.