Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not doubt the Government's efforts with regard to the negotiations and I appreciate the work that has being done by everybody involved, but there is an unfair distribution of the quota. It also makes it so much harder on smaller operators. The 29 vessels that have 87% of the national quota do not have as much at stake as the remaining vessels that have only 13% of the national quota.

A full year's mackerel quota for a tier 2 vessel is a mere 124 tonnes whereas the larger Killybegs vessels have quotas of more than 4,000 tonnes of mackerel each. I do not begrudge the people in Killybegs anything. The more they have the better. However, I want to see balance for the smaller operators, the people who have borrowed €500,000, €1 million, €2 million, €3 million or €4 million to buy a boat. That is their employment. They are trying to pay massive sums of money back to the bank every month. They are trying to keep their own families in employment and to keep a couple of jobs going in their communities. I plead with the Taoiseach. What is facing those people at present is extinction out of that business. They will have to sell their boats, come on to land, and give up the traditions they have upheld all their lives. That is so sad. I ask the Taoiseach to look at this imbalance, please, and to try to do something to rectify it.

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