Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

By changing equipment one can also be more targeted in terms of species, but there will always be an element of by-catch and we need to try to deal with it in a pragmatic way. We should not incentivise wrong catches. Once landed, however, we must put a mechanism in place to deal with the issue.

To respond to Deputy Doherty, I was in Killybegs at the start of the summer to launch an initiative. Local stakeholders wanted to put together a jobs document that could create up to 250 jobs during the coming years. I will launch the document in the next few days, but no one promised 250 jobs or even a portion of that number within six months. The Deputy should not try to twist something that is positive for his area. In co-operation with my Department, the local authority, fishing interests and other interests in Killybegs, stakeholders in his area have done a considerable amount of voluntary work in drafting a report so that a sustainable development plan for the region, driven by fisheries, can be put in place to create jobs in the next two to three years. We are about to launch the finalised report that I announced at the start of the summer. It is a positive news story and it would be helpful if people did not misrepresent what we are trying to do.

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