Ms Sinéad McSherry:

First, the scheme the Deputy spoke to was the whitefish decommissioning scheme. It was a proposal of the seafood task force, which consisted of industry members and other stakeholders. One of their suggestions and proposals to the Minister to deal with the impacts of Brexit was to reduce the number of vessels in the fleet in order that fewer fishers would be trying to catch a reduced amount of quota. That decommissioning scheme was proposed by the industry and delivered on by the Minister.

The Deputy's second question related to the change in profile in the fleet. I do not have statistics with me but it is interesting to look at the type of vessels in our fleet. There is a fleet report done annually that gives the changes over time. We may have provided that in one of our previous attendances at the committee.

The next question the Deputy had was on introducing new members to the industry. Again, we have what is known as a young fishers scheme. It is designed to assist new members, fishers under 40. I am dealing with this from memory but I can send the Deputy details on the scheme.