Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

It sums up the massive contradictions that we have seen when Dublin, Cork and Belfast airports are the biggest fishing ports on this island. No matter what way we look at it, it does not make sense for an island nation in the north Atlantic to be importing seafood from as far afield as Thailand and Australia. From an economic point of view, from a social point of view and from an environmental point of view, it cannot make sense. Mr. Desmond hit the nail on the head when he said we have a healthy product. If we want to use marketing buzzwords, we can say it is artisan, batch caught or "small and slow" food. We have this really healthy food source on our doorstep that can be caught. It tells the story and there is a direct connection. We talk about from farm to fork but this is from sea to fork with that level of traceability. The Government's strategy needs to take that on board.

I have one other question for Mr. Desmond and I would like to hear his comments on it. It relates to our coastal infrastructure, something that was not mentioned yesterday, which is why I am bringing it up. Our inshore sector across the coastline is dependent on a number of smaller ports and harbours, many of them under the control of the local authority rather than BIM or the Department. There is a huge issue with funding where local authorities are only funded for "shovel-ready projects", which means they have to do all the foreshore licensing and preparatory work themselves at cost before they can be considered for funding to do it. This is leading to issues such as the lack of dredging in Cé Heilbhic in west Waterford, which is replicated all across the coast.

Is that something members of the association are raising with Mr. Desmond and his colleagues? Does he think, as I do, that the Departments needs to relook at the rule to bring it more in line with how other Departments fund other capital works by local authorities?