Ms Catherine McManus:

On the finfish sector of aquaculture, the industry has not grown in 30 years. In fact, it has probably gone backwards in terms of production. People ask why and one reason is that our costs in Ireland are so much higher, so the finfish sector decided to go under organic production rules. Automatically, that reduces the volume that can be produced in the licensed area. The licensed areas have not changed in 20 or 30 years. In our case, for example, we have halved our production to comply with organic farming rules. Ireland has gone down that route because we feel the organic profile suits the Irish image. It is a way of trying to get a higher margin on our product because we are competing against big producers elsewhere, in Norway, Scotland and even in the Faroes, where production costs are lower because of their economies of scale. The Irish industry has pivoted that way but that cannot go on forever. As we know, in the past five years, business costs - energy costs and input costs - have increased significantly for everybody due to various geopolitical events and so on. We need to be able to reach other markets that want this high-end, organic food product. Unless we can guarantee continuity of supply, we cannot do that, given our current production limitations at the moment. That is where we are stuck. In a way, time is running out for us because other producers elsewhere will probably take on the organic production model. That is where Ireland will lose out. This stagnation means we are losing.