Mr. John O'Brien:

I join Mr. Early in welcoming the report. Considerable effort was invested in drafting it and it has provided good groundwork on finding a solution to the problems we face. The ban on drift net fishing for salmon in 2006 was a disaster for the entire west coast of Ireland and, in particular, island communities. We are totally dependent on seasonal fishing. As Mr. Early noted, lobster are currently selling at €10.50 to €11 per kilogram, compared to €17 or €18 per kilogram this time last year. When salmon fishing was an option we managed our stock by looking forward to 1 June when we could start drift netting for wild Atlantic salmon. When the new regulations were introduced to the effect that salmon could only be caught in rivers, island communities were excluded. An injustice was done in that regard and we are never going to give up until that injustice is corrected.

That is because anywhere it has been done, it has never gone away. It is always there to haunt one.

There was money available under the hardship scheme so that if one took it, one would go away and keep quiet. Those of us here and the people we represent did not avail of the hardship scheme because we did not see any future in it. One only gets money, which one spends and that is the end of it. We wanted a heritage licence to pass on to our sons. I own my own boat and my three sons work with me. We created our own jobs. We are self-employed, which is a bit of disaster, especially given all the bad weather this year.

Many of the things which went wrong for us started from the time we joined the EU. Putting us into boxes and having entitlements to crab, lobster, cod, etc., does not work. As Mr. Early said, it might work to a certain extent for those who took advantage of the POs and moved to larger vessels, the pelagic boats, which have 90% or probably more of the mackerel and the herring quota. As Mr. Early said, through strong lobbying, they got a huge increase in the mackerel quota, although that is not exactly true. The country - the Irish Government - got a huge increase in the quota and it is up to it to distribute it among the right people. The people of the Donegal islands and along the whole western seaboard should get a percentage of that. Until this year, I think we only had half a tonne per day. From what I hear, these large pelagic boats are not dancing as a result of this huge increase either because they are afraid the prices will drop to the same extent as the quotas have gone up. The Irish Government - the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - got the increase in the quota and it is up to it to share it fairly. The committee and the report must ensure that fish is distributed equally among all those who have a full polyvalent licence and who have an entitlement to that fish.

Much emphasis is placed on 10 m boats and more flexibility for them. We want some more work done on that. Since we started that campaign six years ago, I have been invited to many places, especially the Mediterranean and the French islands. While we get €10 per kilo of lobster, they get €60. A 10 m boat in the Mediterranean is a large boat because of the weather there. To encourage fishermen off the Donegal coast to try to earn a living with a 10 m boat would be close to a disaster. Members will have noted the weather we had from October to January. I have a 12 m boat and I try to work all year round with it. To try to be self-employed with anything less than a 12 m boat would be a disaster.

The problem with the fishing industry is that one is either in it or one is not. One has to be self-employed, which puts a lot of pressure on one to go out in all sorts of weather to earn a living. There should be more flexibility in terms of social welfare to reduce that pressure. If not, we should be allowed to have the boats we think suitable for that type of fishing.

If all boats from Arranmore, Tory, Inishbofin or elsewhere are all the same size, they will all compete in the same ground for the same species. There should be more of a variety where the smaller boats fish along the shore and the larger boats move further offshore to fish for different species. It should be simple enough to have a bit of flexibility there. It would be worth listening to groups such as ours which know what they want.

I understand there will be some EU funding for young skippers - skippers under 40 years of age - getting back into the industry. However, the boat must be between three years and 30 years but that does not make sense to us because no new inshore boats have been built in Ireland since 1983, so there are hardly any under 30 year old boats in this country and there is no market for them.

With the new regulations and the end of discards, we should start with a blank page. If we want to end discards, we should design boats which will not bring in discards. We should design boats, like those about which we are talking, specially designed to keep shellfish alive. That is a fishery which has no quota, no mortality and no waste.

As I said, three of my sons are working with me. There were four brothers in my family and we all expanded by getting our own boats. If my sons or Mr. Early's sons want to expand into non-quota species, in particular, they should be encouraged and helped financially by the EU, by BIM or Údarás na Gaeltachta in Gaeltacht areas. I have not seen one job created by Enterprise Ireland, the IDA or Údarás na Gaeltachta in Inishbofin and, as far as I know, in Tory or in Arranmore, although those from Arranmore may correct me. Any jobs created on those islands were created by us with no financial aid.

I do not know who came up with the idea that the boat must be three years old. I mention the boat I tied up last year. I got word from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that if I did not replace her or put her through the code of practice before the end of July, the licence would be taken off the boat and that if I could not replace the boat within two years, the Department would take back the licence. I would like some financial aid for one of my sons to replace that boat with a boat with which he could earn a living and create another three or four jobs. The jobs I am talking about are jobs on the boat and not jobs in Hannigan Fish Trading or in Earagail Eisce, the people who buy the fish and add value to them.