Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The presentation is challenging. In the course of his contribution Mr. Keatinge stated, "We can add up to 45,000 tonnes of new raw material to the seafood base." Allowing for the fact that there are strict quotas, will he indicate from where the additional 45,000 tonnes will come? One can create more sales by increasing the added value of the product, but Mr. Keatinge also talked about increasing volume.

Mr. Keatinge referred to the creation of an additional 1,200 jobs, in addition to the 11,000 employed in fishing, fish farming and fish processing. Would it be possible to give the joint committee a breakdown of this number and the locations of those employed in fishing, fish farming, and fish processing? For example, a man could be fishing out of Killybegs Harbour, but the processing plant could be in a different location. We need to know the specific detail.

Mr. Keatinge referred to product upscaling. I know a little about upscaling because I have seen it happen incredibly successfully in agriculture and forestry.

However, it is fair to say that, in many cases, indigenous companies which upscale, rather than bringing in companies from outside, actually have a longer shelf life because they are less likely to move. When the representatives of Bord Iascaigh Mhara refer to upscaling of processing companies, are they referring to existing companies or displacing them with multinational companies which may come and go? Could Bord Iascaigh Mhara achieve the same result in other ways, allowing for the constraints in sourcing raw material? No matter what way we look at it, if there is not enough raw material available, companies cannot upscale.

What about market collaboration? In other words, could groups of processes sell collaboratively? In that way, from a market supply point of view, there would be a continuous supply. On the other hand, we could retain companies in the size appropriate to the areas in which they are located. That is of great importance. We saw a fantastic example in the mussel industry in Scotland where all mussel producers began to operate in a co-operative. I gather they had Tesco tied up.