Dr. Eamonn Kelly:

We have a fairly close working relationship. We have worked very closely with it on the birds case and the aquaculture licensing issue. As the Chairman will have heard this morning and afternoon, we have worked very closely with teams in the Marine Institute to bring that process forward. We also work quite closely with it on our offshore work. Obviously it has a research vessel and platforms. Some of the sites we brought forward or recommended to be brought forward were the result of vessel and mapping supports provided by personnel working for the Marine Institute and the Geological Survey of Ireland.

We have worked quite closely with the institute on the marine strategy framework directive that has connections with some of the provisions and heads of the Bill being discussed. I sit on the interdepartmental technical working group for the marine strategy framework directive that includes a lot of Marine Institute personnel. For a lot of the marine areas we deal with, we interact quite freely with the Marine Institute in the main but also the GSI. In other areas we work closely with Inland Fisheries Ireland, for example. I return the Chairman's pun by saying there is fluid interaction.