Mr. Jason Whooley:

It is interesting that the Deputy has raised this issue. Obviously, we are starting from a very disadvantaged position compared to our international competitors such as Scotland, which produces 160,000 tonnes; Norway, which produces 1.2 million tonnes; Chile, which produces 150,000 tonnes; and the Faroe Islands, which produce 50,000 tonnes. We are at a considerable disadvantage. We recently attended a major international seafood conference in Norway. We presented our case and explained what we are doing as a country from an offshore aquaculture perspective. Over 600 delegates from more than 40 countries attended the international conference. The organisers announced that a session of next year's event will be dedicated to our plans for offshore aquaculture because Ireland is seen as a world leader in this regard. They believe that many other nations are going to try to copy what we are trying to achieve. Some of our competitors from Scotland have been in contact with us to see if they can access our plans. They are very excited by what is happening here. They think our ambitious vision for this sector is groundbreaking and they want to copy us.