Mr. Francis O'Donnell:

Deputies Martin Kenny and Martin Ferris nailed their colours clearly to the mast. While I respect them for that, my difficulty is, as my colleague said, that we represent people who come from disadvantaged areas, as well as those who have done well in the fishing industry. How does one disentangle somebody from an island and somebody fishing right beside them in the same area who is extremely disadvantaged? If one is from south-west Donegal, one will have nothing in terms of employment other than fishing or a little bit of subsistence farming.

There is no question about it. The Government can change policy. Lately, it changed policy in respect of mackerel sharing. Several years ago, it changed policy on blue whiting, Celtic Sea herring and north-west herring. Over the past several years, there has been a scientific fishery plan for North-West herring. Last year, the inshore vessels got approximately 15% of that. Not all of these vessels were under 12 m. Some of them were between 14 m and 16 m and some of those fishermen were from islands too. There is a policy recognition at PO and national level that more has to be done. Wearing my PO hat or even politically, I do not know how one can differentiate between people in this regard. I respect what the Deputies said. There is no doubt that people from islands cannot simply step off and get a job. In some coastal communities, however, they cannot go elsewhere either.

The CFP recognised island communities and small-scale fisheries more so this time than it ever did before. However, it did not direct how that was to be played out. The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, EMFF, is in place. Much more money needs to go into small-scale fisheries in general, not just necessarily island communities. By small-scale fisheries, I mean everyone fishing inside the baselines in terms of fisheries management, science, nursery areas, marketing and infrastructure on islands and piers. While the Deputies and I may not be in the same place, I recognise things must be done and the Government can change policy.

Deputy McConalogue referred to salmon fishing. In a previous life, I was a fisheries inspector. Drift netting for salmon ceased in 2006 after a task force report on it. At that point, it was perceived that drift netting was the reason for the decline of Atlantic salmon. It is now accepted that was not the case. Atlantic salmon continues to decline and it is believed now that it is a marine survival issue. It is important that for traditional fisheries, such as drift netting and draft netting for salmon, it is recognised environmental and ecological conditions can change. In Greenland and Iceland, where salmon go to feed, ten or 15 years from now the salmon stocks might start to recover. It is important for coastal communities to exploit them. I know salmon is an iconic species. However, if managed properly and if that fishery comes back on stream, the opportunity should be there for everybody. Families have traditionally fished salmon from islands and coastal communities. My members asked me would a heritage licence confer rights if salmon fishing comes back. That is why I put it into our submission. I would be open to it. As someone who comes from the coast myself, we should monitor that fishery in the future. I hope that there would be willingness at government level that if these stocks did recover, we would open up those fisheries again.

Deputy Ó Cuív spoke about track record. That is the case in some fisheries. However, it us up to the Government and elected representatives to change that. That is very much in flux. It has not always changed in the favour of the inshore sector but it has changed in the past two to three years. The Government's policy is to give more to inshore sector in terms of pelagic stocks. It may not be happening fast enough, but it is happening. That is up to elected representatives.