Mr. Donal Maguire:

Typically, it makes far more sense to process the fish as close to the point of landing as possible because that gives maximum shelf life in the market, for example, if the Galway Bay project were to come to fruition those fish would be processed in Rossaveal.

For example, just recently a farm was restarted in Kilkieran Bay in Connemara and this is now processing directly in the local Kilkieran Éisc plant because it makes economic, biological and marketing sense to do so. Those fish will be processed as close as possible to the location and where facilities exist to do it.

The Deputy asked a question about operators. We have to be very careful about this. In the event that we are successful in getting a licence - we accept that is a big "if" - we will need to have a tendering process which will have to be uncontaminated as well as open and free. We have no preference for any particular operator and there is no preferred operator. We have taken advice on how to maintain our position so as not to contaminate the process.