Dr. Alyne Elizabeth Delaney:

I hope I managed to write down all the questions and I apologise if I have missed some of them. I will begin with the questions from Senator Ó Domhnaill - I do not have Irish so I apologise for not pronouncing the names correctly. His first question, which I managed to write down, was about the salmon ban and whether it could be lifted. This ties in to what I stated at the end of my presentation. There is the idea of collaborative research whereby we go in and do a pilot project to determine the position, as Senator Ó Domhnaill suggested. Through my work I have read and visited many places in the world. In many areas there may be a protected species or area but in other places in the world there is not usually a complete ban or closure. Often, there are graduated rules and rights of access for different individuals in different parts of the sector. If we look around the world we see that there are many situations and sometimes there may be an arrangement that certain groups cannot come in but anglers and small-scale operators are allowed in. We adapt it to the situation. The most important thing in trying to evaluate the ban, and possibly lift it, is to get the data, which, as we have said, we do not have. The key thing is to try to set up some type of collaborative research project. Oftentimes when scientists have to make decisions they need a given time series and something to base them upon.

Senator Ó Domhnaill asked whether there should be policy changes to support communities. Was he referring to EU level?