Mr. Tony Barrett:

I find it almost amusing that a Canadian company is talking about the Chinese coming to take Irish seaweed. I wish to add to what Mr. John Bhaba Jeaic Ó Conghaile said on the risk of setting precedents in regard to a blanket licence for a single commercial entity. The precedent could be such that other resources, such as other seaweed species, would be sought in the future.

I noticed that both ascophyllum and fucus were mentioned in the opening statement of Arramara. From my experience as CEO of Arramara, we never processed fucus. We were quite adamant in stating to seaweed harvesters that we did not want fucus; we wanted ascophyllum only. It is a little odd, therefore, that fucus is now mentioned in the processing portfolio.

I wish to refer to the report of the Joint Sub-Committee on Fisheries published in January 2014, Promoting Sustainable Rural Coastal and Island Communities. The timeline for some of the actions is quite interesting. On 1 March, the press release from Údarás na Gaeltachta states that at its board meeting on that day, it was agreed to sell the Údarás na Gaeltachta shares in Arramara to Acadian Seaplants Limited. This agreement will be subject to the Minister's approval and legal conditions. Údarás na Gaeltachta members were advising the members of the joint sub-committee on 30 April 2013, just two months after the press release on the selling of the company to Acadian. The recommendation from Údarás na Gaeltachta was that the principal objective was to obtain licensed regulation of supply of the seaweed industry. The report was published in January 2014 and, two months later, Arramara made the application for the blanket licence for the region from north Mayo to north Clare. I find the timeline very interesting.