Ms Catherine McManus:

The key difference with Norway is it blessed with a coastline that is very deep; its fjords can be up to 500 m deep. The Irish coastline is much shallower. We operate on sites 20 to 30 m deep and, therefore, we are restricted in how far we can go down. The Norwegian licensing system is more efficient and swifter. It is like a planning application in Ireland; that is how quickly they can turn it over. They also reward good performance in their licensing system. If someone can demonstrate, through monitoring, that he or she is not impacting on the environment, he or she can perhaps apply for an increase in his or her licence. It is a positive feedback system and it is much faster - months, as opposed to years - for a licence to be granted.

In Europe, including Scotland, production of finfish is growing in those countries.