Dr. Cecil Beamish:

I will make one additional point. In a lot of other member states, the vessel capacity is not a private commodity. In Ireland it is a private commodity. Therefore, when people are decommissioning that is the most valuable part of the commodity they are relinquishing. In other member states, the commodity owned by fishermen is a private quota. The quota is privatised and therefore, that is what they are relinquishing. Obviously the structure of the payments reflects the nature of the fisheries management system that has grown up and developed in the different member states. In Ireland the quota is a national asset but the capacity is privately owned. The decommissioning scheme must reflect that.