Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the provisions of this Bill were adhered to, it could lead to the privatisation of our quota opportunities.

I wish to take issue with Deputy Connolly's comments on the Government's review of islands policy and so on. An interdepartmental group and all of the relevant actors in various Departments will go to the island communities and listen to them, which is as it should be. That is the whole purpose of the review. There will be cross-departmental engagement with the island communities. It will not be, as Deputy Connolly suggested, a question of people talking to themselves. In fact, the consultation is being launched on Sherkin Island this weekend and the island communities will be listened to.

In terms of my own Department, the Common Agricultural Policy and support for island communities, there has been a very significant increase in financial support for island-based farmers. Significantly higher payments are available to them than to their colleagues on the mainland, which is as it should be given the additional costs involved. Our record is defensible in that regard. I appreciate the debate that this Bill has generated. It has brought into sharp focus the needs of the smaller man or woman in the fishing industry. In the debate that it has generated, it has delivered real and tangible results of which I am quite proud as Minister.

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