Mr. John Lynch:

I will respond to the question the Deputy addressed to me on the review of the CFP and the utilisation of quota. I could go through them all but the three main ones that are underutilised, or where Ireland is short on quota, are nephrops in area VII; monkfish in areas VII and VI; and hake in the wider areas VI, VII and VIII. Those quotas are underutilised, mainly by France, which has a huge share of the TAC. Ireland has a tiny share in all three cases, namely 3%, 7% and 30% in nephrops 30%. However, in nephrops we run very close to the line every year and it is only through good management that we are left with a few tonnes to transfer into the following year. With the underutilisation by other member states, and one member state in particular, as Mr. Tattan said, we could develop a better transfer or swapping mechanism that could work for Ireland. All these issues are well dealt with in the final report by the CFP review group the Minister appointed this year and that reported to him in August. All the tools are there, including all the issues we discussed at this committee regarding the CFP. The document points out well how we could achieve a better deal for Ireland. The Minister and the Government should follow that document and apply it in their negotiations in Brussels to achieve a better deal in all the stocks we have outlined, such as sole in F and G, where we have only 3% of a valuable fishery. We are very short on this stock and we do not invoke the Hague preference we have on that stock.