Mr. Sean Ó Mocháin:

We heard much about competition from Mr. O'Sullivan in the previous session. My understanding of the basis of the EU is that we have a free market. Giving licences to large commercial organisations over the heads of the local communities and people who have made their living on this sustainable resource and protected it for years is the very antithesis of open competition. No company has the right to walk in and deprive these people of their traditional rights. They have protected the resource for years.

The representatives of Acadian Seaplants Limited are talking as if they are experts with huge experience in this area and therefore know what is right. Údarás na Gaeltachta is letting them away with it. The people of Connemara and Mayo have been doing this for 67 years and have not destroyed anything. They should be allowed to continue to do this. The Government and the EU need to come up with some means of protecting these people's livelihoods in their own homes. For example, they should simplify the forms so these people can get their licences. Perhaps some kind of simple control can be organised through co-operatives. If that cannot be done, it is a poor day for this country. We have already given away our fish and our oil rights, and now we are going to give away our seaweed. I do not think it is right. It is very important for these people to be allowed to keep their rights and to make a living from them as they always have. They have done nothing wrong. I do not see why anybody should have the arrogance to come in and say that these people have done something wrong and are going to destroy the industry. They are not going to do so.