Mr. Jason Whooley:

We have worked very closely with representatives of various inshore fishing groups. We have sat down with the individuals at numerous meetings on this specific application at our offices in Galway. We embarked on a comprehensive scoping exercise before we conducted an environmental impact statement. The purpose of that exercise, and of the meetings we held with the inshore fishermen before we conducted the environmental impact statement, was to identify the issues they felt should be considered in the environmental impact assessment that was to accompany our subsequent application. Having discussed with the scientific experts in the Marine Institute the issues raised by the fishermen, including issues relating to the spawning grounds for shrimp, herring and whiting in the vicinity, we are comfortable that this farm will not have a significant impact on inshore fishing activities. In fact, the custom and practice is that very little of the grounds of inshore fishermen is taken up by other fish farms around the coast. They can shoot their pots right up to the anchors of these cages. That can be seen around the coast, for example, in the case of the salmon cages on Clare Island. We are very comfortable that there will not be any displacement.

It is important to understand that a project of this nature and scale is not without impact. We are comfortable that we have done everything possible to try to minimise the impact on inshore fishermen. If we are lucky and successful in our application, we will continue to work with them to ensure any minimal impact that might occur is alleviated by other measures. We have discussed those measures and the potential mitigating factors with them. We will seek to implement them as part of the model we envisage as we move forward with this project.