Mr. Paul Mullins:

What must be remembered is the accepted overall objective, which is to take this fabulous resource on our doorstep and maximise the economic benefit for the country. I am being patriotic about it, but I want to see more and more of the value it can generate kept in Ireland and used for the benefit of the economy. One of the risks in a co-operative type system is that it would simply sell to the highest bidder, which could be a Chinese company seeking raw material to be processed in China. That would not be in our interests as a country or an economy. We should stand back a little. All of the details relating to whether a harvesting co-operative or a company would be preferable should be considered as part of the bigger picture in terms of what we want to achieve. We want to achieve the maximisation of the resource for the economy. We want to achieve long-term sustainability and ensure the resource is not damaged by over-harvesting or incorrect harvesting. I am not suggesting this has been happening to date, but there is the risk as the commercial demands increase. Rather than getting into the details of some of the questions being asked by the committee - they have merit in their own right - we should consider the bigger picture and understand how we can make our needs fit. It should mean that no single entity will be allowed total control, that future sustainability will be managed in a way that will guarantee the resource is not damaged and that the economic benefit will be maximised for the economy.