Mr. Eamon Dixon:

It definitely would have done. The strategy was launched in 2019 and Covid came in 2020. Obviously, we had Brexit and stuff. Things happened that interfered in ways that were hard to predict over those two years, for sure. Had it been rolled out the way it was meant to have been, it would have made an enormous difference. Mr. Desmond has a copy of it and I am sure all members will be able to access it. The important thing is that the inshore sector is starting on another strategy which will run until 2027. It is very important that we get the issues that are so important to us addressed. Many of them were in that strategy. There are a few new ones but the majority were covered in that. We need to get those addressed in the very near future. That would help.

As Mr. Desmond just said, subsidies or some financial support is required. If what is in the strategy can be worked on and some of that can start to be rolled out to us, it would be of great help. Those from my region, the north west, certainly feel we need a dedicated person in BIM or some other State agency to co-ordinate it. If some of the proposals we have put forward are not rolled out and brought over the line, we need to be able to go back to somebody. There needs to be a co-ordinator. It is hard to do much nowadays in anything like that without having a dedicated co-ordinator. If I can pick up the phone and tell that co-ordinator that a key point in our strategy is not happening and we cannot survive without it, the person getting paid to do that job can go back to the powers that be and say the inshore sector needs this rolled out now. It would be a huge asset for us in the future if that could be done.