Mr. Stiofán Ó Cúláin:

I will reply in English. We acquired Arramarra Teoranta from the State in 2006. The company had been in operation since 1947 processing, milling and drying a particular type of seaweed, ascophyllum nodosum, which is found in abundance along the west coast in Donegal, Mayo and Galway in particular, and in County Clare., and supplying the dry weed to processors who added value and, perhaps, many jobs elsewhere. When we got the company, its infrastructure was deficient and needed much investment and expertise to develop added value products in the locality, which is Kilkieran in west Galway, which is a very strong Gaeltacht but a disadvantaged area with high unemployment. We thought we would take the raw material and try to develop it, add value to the products and get the company up to speed with regard to the investment required and create jobs locally. Many jobs depend on the company, in particular the harvesters, who number between 250 and 300 people. There are also those who transport the weed to the factory. These were the primary drivers for our decision to add value to this local renewable resource to create employment for all the partners in the business.