Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I will try to be helpful on this but a number of important things must be said. First, if there are large arrears outstanding, it is difficult for me to examine a new mechanism for calculating rent until those arrears are paid or there is an agreed payment plan in place to pay them. Nobody should hold back on paying arrears in the expectation of some type of amnesty because we cannot do that realistically. We must operate our fisheries harbours on a commercial basis. If I end up subsidising the cost of running fishing harbours with taxpayers' money, people will not thank me for it.

Let us not forget that these contracts were signed by both parties on a voluntary basis; there was no coercion involved. However, I accept that in some cases there has been a fundamental change in terms of commercial value and rental charges since those leases were signed. We will try to accommodate that change. However, I strongly advise people who have significant arrears with the Department that is very difficult for us to negotiate with anybody with huge lump sums of money outstanding. If a payment plan is put in place for them, we will try to be constructive on the other issues.

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