Mr. Dominic Rihan:

On the Deputy's question regarding the paying back of the tie-up moneys, with the Brexit adjustment reserve, BAR, regulation there was a set of state aid guidelines produced by the Directorate-General for Competition, DG Competition, which set out the way and the measures that could be funded under the BAR scheme for fisheries. One of the conditions around temporary tie-up and decommissioning was that moneys paid out in any other scheme had to be paid back. That applied to our tie-up moneys. When our decommissioning scheme was sent to DG Competition for state aid approval, one of the conditions they insisted on was that the tie-up moneys were paid back. Without that condition they would not have approved the scheme and we would not have a decommissioning scheme. We got one concession. Our tie-up scheme had been set out whereby one third of the tie-up money was paid directly to crew. We got agreement from the Commission that it should not be paid back because the vessel owner was getting no benefit and it was going to the crew. We got that concession but it was a condition of the scheme. It was at the insistence of the Commission. We tried hard to get out of it and pointed out its unfairness but as I say, without that condition we would not have had approval for the scheme.