Mr. Hugo Boyle:

We have spoken about islands and the opportunities we might have to give islanders over their relatives and neighbours ashore who are fishing in the same area because of this Bill. I return to what Deputy Martin Kenny said about an unlevel playing field. I worked and fished around every island of Ireland, in small boats and larger ones. I know all the islanders, many of the island communities and have worked in partnership with boats from the Aran Islands for almost 30 years. I have knowledge and insight into what happens there. Most islanders who I know and have met over the years are very proud people. They are very independent, progressive people and they are competitive. Many islanders came out and did what they had to. There was a level playing field then - I will not speak about the track record, I refer to the period before that - and were pioneers in the fishing industry. It was an islander who had the first dedicated pelagic vessel in Ireland, which they worked their way up to, and the first factory ship in Ireland. The owner of the biggest trawler in the world in its time was from an island. One can go to the Aran Islands or Cruit Island, or speak to some of the skippers from Inisbofin who have worked on large vessels and have done extraordinarily well, as have those from Bere Island or the west Cork islands. We are talking about people who themselves have a proud tradition. I am surprised that they would seek anything other than a level playing field. It is true that fishing communities around the coast need some sort of help, possibly through quotas, for instance, but I do not think that they would want a quota that their neighbour two miles away could not access.

I agree with Ms Parke. What quota could one give them? There is very little cod around the islands and no haddock inside the six-mile zone. I would be surprised if they wanted to confine themselves to that particular area of the six-mile zone around the islands. The islanders that I know would not want that. When I speak of islands, I live on an island and reared a family on one, who are rearing their families on one, so I have some insight, although it is not an offshore island. That is where I come from regarding a level playing field. I do not expect someone to lose out from the islanders getting something extra. If we could go with what Mr. Casey suggested, that would be perfect. I have many friends on islands and do not want to lose them, nor will I, as a result of what I am saying here because I am being totally objective.

On Deputy Martin Kenny's other point on ring-fencing, that is a dirty word in the fishing industry. I am glad that the Deputy agrees with my observation that this is ring-fencing. Deputy Ó Cuív said, things have been ring-fenced for islands before, and obviously that is correct.

Deputy Ferris said that the Government can change its rules and allocate quota. It probably can and if it does so, we will not stand on a barrel saying "Do not do that". The way things are now, it cannot actually do that and that process is not available to us. On the track record, I admit that it is a difficulty.

That is where we are coming from. As I said, as the Bill stands, we cannot support it.