Dr. Maeve Edwards:

I do not necessarily think that is always the case. From our experience, we get many phone calls from start-ups or would-be start-ups and the first thing I always ask them is have they got a market for their seaweed, and quite often they answer "No" to that question. They think such a business is a great idea and want to set it up. Organisations such as Enterprise Ireland are fairly good in making those links. We do a good deal of work though the Enterprise Ireland €5,000 voucher scheme, for example, to do preliminary, very small-scale surveys or very small parcels of work that will ensure they can go on and search for further funding. It just depends who comes to our door. For the larger projects, one must have a more developed business to create a bigger project such as NutraMara. However, there should be something there for everybody and we are certainly happy to work with everybody.