Ms Karin Dubsky:

Yes, absolutely. Two fishermen have recently been made bankrupt. We represented them in the Supreme Court to try to stop this because they are losing their livelihoods. They are traditional native oyster fishermen from Donegal. Ireland has incredible shellfish riches, so we should be highlighting these native species which could back up tourism also. At the moment we do not have any policy on which species to grow, so if there are applications to grow Japanese oysters the Minister can choose to grow the gigas ones. When the gigas oyster becomes feral and invasive - as it has done in Lough Foyle, for example - it is nobody's responsibility. It is not clear in this Bill who would be responsible to halt this, clean up the mess and control feral oysters which are now taking over the native oysters' habitat.