Mr. Donal Buckley:

Perhaps I can talk at several levels above the way we look at scale. We look at scale when we look at export companies as we need significant size to be able to compete effectively. Since 2010, the processing sector has added €146 million in exports and that has created more than 340 jobs in coastal processors. A good example is the work we are doing in China. Somebody asked about consolidation and rationalisation and our model is to create co-operation and alliances. For example, in China, we have assisted companies to create joint ventures where they have brought together the resources and have stopped internal competition and giving away value. Rather they are trying to get efficiency and the marketing. This has been highly successful. We started with a couple of million euro two or three years ago, and this year, we will be up at €24 million. It is adding this sort of value and, to convert what creating growth means in terms of jobs, for every million euro of revenue growth we get, we will get three to four direct jobs and six indirect jobs in pubs and in the local economy. Overall, that is ten jobs per million euro and that is why we are driving on with growth. Moreover, growth comes from both the volume and the raw material with the value added. As for value added, we do a lot in our new seafood product development centre in Clonakilty, where we help companies convert their ideas into good business through new product development or packaging or how they take them to market.

I spoke about exports and another level pertains to the domestic economy and how we look at helping companies. Again, we bring companies into our seafood development centre to give them skills. These are either technical skills, such as filleting the fish in small processors or, in respect of retailers, how they present their fish and how they handle the quality. Some of my colleagues ran a seaweed workshop a couple of months ago at which 200 small-scale entrepreneurs came in to ascertain how they might develop their business. All these activities are driving the overall sector upwards. It is not just a case of one size fitting all but is a roadmap whereby all companies can advance their business. This is what we are trying to do regarding scale for exporting and regional companies that can build their resources and can add one or two employees per business.