Dr. Greg Forde:

We will try to respond to members questions in the order they were asked, with questions in respect of which overlaps arise being responded to in the first instance.

On Deputy Ó Cuív's first question regarding importation of shellfish and oysters, this issue has been addressed by the new fish health regulations. There was a real problem when there was no regulation around the importation of oysters from other locations and the movement of oysters. The preservation of the few bays that are not suffering from binemia to the same extent as others must be tightly controlled. It would be great if we had a flat oyster that is tolerant of binemia and can still survive. What often happens is that just as the oysters reach marketable size, they open and die. A lot of this is regulated through the Marine Institute. IFI has a specific role around licensing for the harvest of the species. I do not see this issue being a big problem, provided all of the required controls are put in place and any seed imported comes from disease-free stock and so on. The big problem in Ireland was that product was being imported, left in one bay for a while and then moved and spread elsewhere. This no longer happens.

Deputy Ó Cuív's second question related to finfish and the re-siting of licences for farms. Dr. Gargan will elaborate further on this point later. Dr. Gargan and I referred in our opening submissions to problems with the siting of salmon aquaculture sites. Deputy Pringle asked about aquaculture licensing in areas where wild mollusc fisheries exist. IFI is in favour of all of these issues being unravelled as part of the new process. This is about sustainability of aquaculture operations and sustainability of wild fish. In both respects, we would prefer that the new licensing regime would enable identification of problem areas and the re-siting of operations to non-affected areas, such that people can continue to operate a site but in a place where it has less affect on the wild fishery. Dr. Gargan will respond now to some of the other questions asked.