Mr. Richie Flynn:

I will give some of my time to my chairman, Mr. Jerry Gallagher, to discuss scallops in particular. Deputy Martin Ferris asked a question on Galway Bay, which I will deal with now rather than to have the whole meeting discuss it. The committee has discussed it and will have BIM and the Marine Institute in to talk about it also. To be clear, the IFA supports salmon farming in principle but cannot and will not lobby for any particular licence be it public or private. The IFA believes the application process, no more than a planning permission or other process, must be upheld. I am sure that legislators agree that the process must be apolitical.

The science is sound as far as the IFA is concerned and there is no doubt about it. We should not let opinion overrule facts. I am personally concerned, having worked in the sector for 17 years, that there has been a great deal of scaremongering and hype. Many piseogs I thought were dead in the 1980s have been resurrected. They have to be dealt with. I am also very concerned for my existing members. I mentioned them earlier and the 600 licence applications that have been made. The IFA has been clear from the beginning that in dealing with the new approach BIM is pursing, which is innovative, there must be a parallel process to deal with existing licence applications for shellfish and finfish by people who have invested a great deal of time, energy and money into this business over the last 20 to 30 years. There are definitely offshore sites which must be investigated. We definitely need critical mass. I explained to the committee before about turning customers away and the embarrassment of going to international seafood fairs and saying to very important international supermarkets and processors and restaurants "Thank you very much for your interest in Irish salmon and Irish shellfish, but, we are very sorry, we are not being allowed to produce what we would like to produce to fulfil your orders. So, thank you but no thanks". It is a terrible position for anyone to be put in in this day and age. It is always the default position of some regulators to kick thorny issues like this to touch by setting up another committee to look at the science all over again. I have been at this long enough and sat on all the committees. As far as I am concerned, the case is closed on foot of the new science and there is no need to reinvent the wheel.

There are many different types of aquaculture. It is similar to the case on land. No one would dream of tillage farming in the Burren but they might set up a very successful salmon smoking company there. In fact, one was set up in Lisdoonvarna which sells Irish organic farmed salmon around the world. That brings me to the second question about sustainability. Irish aquaculturalists realised a long time ago that, with the best will in the world, there was no way to compete with the 1.2 million tonnes coming from Norway so we developed niche marketing on the organic side, particularly with salmon and trout. The shellfish industry is now getting involved. "Sustainability" is the buzzword, which we have recognised. We are getting very good prices for our products. Bord Bia has introduced the new "origin green" initiative and I am proud to say that two IFA members have been among the first people to embrace it and get involved in the auditing. It is available for fish and I encourage producers to get involved.

I am personally drafting a Europe-wide sustainability charter for the aquaculture sector which will be launched in Dublin in May. It consists of a five-point plan to hand the aquaculture industry to the next generation on a sustainable basis. It is very exciting and I look forward to the launch. Labelling is vital, particularly country-of-origin labelling. We have said it before to the committee. Control of labelling is vital also. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland and the HSE must be involved as must the SFPA It is very interesting that the branding of special areas of conservation, or SACs, was raised. We have no problem with SACs, which protect environments and birds or other wildlife. We depend on the environment for our livelihoods. The problem with SACs has not been the fact that places have been designated, it has been the way that the system has been mishandled from day 1 by Dúchas, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department.

That is where we have the problem and we need to get this sorted out with Brussels. There are niches in fishing and farming and we can capitalise on our green image.

On the point of native versus farmed oysters, there are some native types farmed as well. Ireland has the largest number of native oyster fisheries, 12, left in Europe after the diseases which hit the industry in the 1960s and 1970s. The combination of pacific oysters and native oysters is working very well. The oyster farmers in Clarinbridge, County Galway, point out that the native oysters are coming back because they are settling in those areas where they are bottom-growing pacific oysters. Those fisheries need to be protected and we should be extremely proud of them.