Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 24 January 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Crisis in Ireland's Inshore Fishing Industry: Discussion

Mr. Eamon Dixon:

Yes, I suppose when the fish are there, we need to be able to take them. Again, we are sometimes restricted by the quota management and the people who manage the quotas and make the regulations. We were adamantly against some of the ones they made that restricted us in. If a boat is restricted to only landing six tonnes for the month, once that boat has the six tonnes landed, whether it takes the fishers three days or ten days to land it, they are then basically tied up because they are not allowed to go out again. Let us consider us relative to the bigger boats. One of those larger vessels that is going out to Scotland to catch its quota would not be restricted. They are not restricted to six tonnes. They would not go if they were restricted to six tonnes.