Mr. Francis O'Donnell:

What happens here is the opposite of what happens in other member states such as the UK, Spain and France. The Department and the Government has been at pains to state that there will not be an individual transferable quotas, ITQs, system in Ireland. The four producer organisations sit on the quota management committee but I can assure the committee that we do not get our way much of the time on significant issues. It is always a matter of consensus.

This process is running in parallel to another process, which we just concluded yesterday, related to trawling inside the six miles limit. For example, our organisation made it clear in the public consultation process that we support conservation areas for spawning aggregations of fish and nursery areas. There is so much that Government could do in the inshore sector to benefit both the inshore fishing vessels and vessels that fish further out that and we have identified that. To be fair and not to be in any way disrespectful, some of the information around quota de facto being owned by companies and people is not true. For instance, if I own a fishing vessel for 20 years and I sell it, any citizen can buy it, the capacity and fish, and, therefore, I do not think that what was said is the case. It is difficult to get into the industry because it is expensive industry but people are not isolated. Families do not own it. The State is clear on that. Any time this is discussed in the Dáil, one of the first points that is made by the Minister of the day is that the quota belongs to the State.