Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

I understand where the Deputy is coming from, as he is the meat in the sandwich. The aquaculture debate is not new. It started first in 1989-90 following the sea trout stock collapse, and we have not moved off first base in the debate. We went through the 1990s with a range of task forces and working groups but we have not moved. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, to its credit, has implemented a pest control strategy. Significant improvements have been made at national level, which we acknowledge. We have not moved away, however, from the description we have provided. The IFI, the former Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, and his former Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, had suggested a three person group to assess everything independently of all the science and so on and to make adjudications to chart a way forward once and for all. The IFI board signed up and thought it was a good way forward. We looked for support for this because we recognise the dichotomy that Deputies from coastal areas face with these two sectors. They are not mutually exclusive. People have painted us into box. When one sector is well managed and policed, it does well and this equally applies to the other sector. They can co-exist but we believe some form of grouping such as the three person group recommended by Deputies Rabbitte and O'Dowd would be a good way to negotiate this issue.