Mr. Richie Flynn:

I really did not want to come here today to talk about that area. Perhaps the development is five, ten or 20 years away. Any facility that has reached production level, with farmed salmon all the way through to market size, has been significantly subsidised. The latest edition of National Geographicrefers to a large American foundation that states it put millions upon millions of dollars into this to determine whether it would work.

No farm so far has managed to get fish to the market without massive subsidisation because that is the only way it would work. They have not proved that they are a commercial entity yet and they have not sold anything that would return a profit that would show that it is possible.

Some deliberately provocative statements have been made, to which I will not rise. Some of what has been said today is very sad because of a lack of knowledge about the industry, which was expressed through some of the language used. That is unfortunate. That is not what I came here for today but I will let it pass because, as Deputy Ó Cuív said, we would need a lot more time. I urge those who have never been to a salmon farm to visit one, as it is obvious that some have not been to one. I would be happy to show them around.

Reference was made to local people. I do not understand the emphasis. Who does Deputy Ó Cuív think runs the farms at the moment? Who owns them and who works on them? It is local people. These are local jobs for local people. Some people have been living and working on the farms for 20 years and 30 years. The Deputy knows them and I know them.