Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their attendance, presentation and answering many questions from what I think they will accept was a small number of very informed members. We had a forthright engagement in which the witnesses engaged fully. We must accept they answered every question put. Perhaps not every answer was to the satisfaction of members in so far as there are differences in viewpoints but, none the less, they answered them.

I am conscious of the fact this is the 2013 report and that 2013 was 16 months ago. With everybody's co-operation, I hope the committee will be able to discuss the 2014 annual report in this calendar year rather than in the next one, although the next calendar year might be a bit hectic.

I would like to make some observations in conclusion. The sub-committee, which I chaired, included members from the Joint Committee on Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications because of the cross-over. It focused on the smaller fleet in the context of trying to protect dispersed rural communities along the coast and on the islands. A very pertinent point was made in terms of looking at Holland and what might have been if there had not been any intervention. There is always that pull to rationalise and to consolidate at a cost to rural communities, the environment and animal welfare in the case of animals and perhaps similarly in the case of fish. That is why the report made recommendations and the inshore fisheries forums are certainly a step in the right direction. The marine conference held last year was planned but we would have recommended that sort of forum be established.

In the context of keeping many smaller operators in place so that island and rural communities can survive, if one wants to keep them small but to sell large, one must collaborate. That is the one thing we learned from the shellfish people, in particular Scotland. Is there merit in looking at co-operatives to a greater degree? I am a layman and have nothing to do with aquaculture.

Mr. Maguire referred to a body of water with 15,000 tonnes. If that was broken down, along the Norwegian or the Scottish lines, into 5,000 tonne parcels, could it be an alternative model? I am just raising that. Could we look at establishing co-operatively owned fish farms which would give the people of the community a sense of ownership of them?

In Galway, people have been given shares in some of the wind farm projects, so everyone gets a benefit. There is a likelihood that processing would take place nearby, notwithstanding all the reasoned, rational and business reasons one would do so anyway.

We did not really mention shellfish farming but it seems to have a role. The people we met in Scotland had a distribution depot on the ring road around Glasgow and they controlled the supply chain to all the major multiples, which is a bit of reversal but it certainly seemed to be effective. We were in Oban. We also visited the equivalent of our Marine Institute, Scottish Marine Science, which was doing a lot of research on multi-species aquaculture fish farms, where one species fed off the waste and one had a cleaner and more natural environment. Along with other matters, that is probably one for the future. We should keep a watchful eye on this.

I thank members for sticking with us.