Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael)

I join my colleagues in welcoming the Minister to the House. I am delighted to see he has an interest in this area. We discussed food safety in the Chamber yesterday and the possibility of creating more jobs and this must be our concern for the future. That is what we should be dealing with in the future. There is a great possibility for jobs in this area. We have heard stories over the years about a great number of boats tied up in areas and people not having work. I am aware the Minister was in Killybegs recently for an event I was unable to attend but I understand he had good news for those people. That is very positive.

This Bill follows on from the first Act in 1933, which was amended in 2009. It transfers the areas for which the Minister has responsibility to the area of the environment, which will be dealt with by the Minister's colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan.

The aquaculture sector must be examined. There is huge potential in that sector and it would be important that any applications received in that area are processed as quickly as possible to allow people start producing in the area of aquaculture.

Job creation is important also. We learned in recent days that boatloads of fish caught in Irish waters are being exported to France and other countries for processing. That is unacceptable. We must process here any fish we catch in our own waters.

An area that will be transferred to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is the development of wind and wave energy which has huge potential for jobs. While I would have an interest in wind turbines on land, I am aware that wind and wave energy is vitally important. At a time when we import €6 billion worth of oil and fossil fuels from abroad, it is important that we begin to develop our own resources.

We have had problems in the past in terms of our rich reserves of oil and gas. We must make sure those reserves are harvested here and jobs created in that area because we will have problems into the future in terms of energy resources. It is vitally important that all of those aspects are examined. I will conclude to allow my colleagues deal further with the Bill. I thank the Minister.