Mr. Fintan Gorman:

I would love to have a debate with the Deputy on aquaculture and to write the book on it. I do not term myself an angler, I have an interest in the area and in angling but I am not a serious angler.

I recognise the limited employment perspective in respect of aquaculture. To be quite honest, I see it as being totally detrimental to game angling - salmon and trout angling - particularly in the context of the cages that are placed in estuaries and riverbeds. I wish to quote from a recent study from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, published in the very reputable Aquaculture Environment Interactions. The institute studied 300 scientific papers on the problem of sea lice resulting from aquaculture. I will be brief, as the Chairman requested. The conclusion is that at the mouth of spawning rivers, sea lice from aquaculture are responsible for a reduction of between 12% and 29% in the number of salmon returning. My view and that of IFI-----