Mr. John Menarry:

We have a situation where the Minister is advocating at European level for us to have fair and equal access to a common resource. Herring and mackerel quotas are a national asset that do not belong to anybody in this country. We have an underlying issue. I do not know if everyone can see the graph I am holding but the blue section shows the size of the inshore fleet and also indicated is the allocation of fish that is available to the inshore fleet. Where I am now indicating illustrates the amount of fish to which larger vessels have access. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand there is an imbalance there. We are not asking for an enormous shift. At the moment, 12% of the mackerel quota is available to the polyvalent sector but due to ministerial policy, 97.5% of that 12% goes to 27 vessels. It used to be available to all polyvalent vessels. The term "polyvalent" means using many different forms. We could hook fish with hooks or nets or trawl for that allocation when it was available to us but due to ministerial policy, that has been removed from us. All we are looking for is to get access again to what we originally had access to.

We have heard numerous times on social media that the inshore sector is trying to take fish from here or there and that the sector is taking fish from somebody else. That is trying to muddy the waters, so to speak. All we are asking for is fair and equal access to what we previously had access to. Track record is a tool used to discriminate against inshore fishers. We are told we do not have a track record of fishing particular fish. We have historical records of fishing this species. Inshore fishing was there long before anything else but that seems to have been forgotten. This is something that could be changed quite simply by an adjustment of ministerial policy. Nothing is required at an EU level or anywhere else. It is not about taking fish from anybody. It is about having fair and equal access to a national resource.